Washington: It has been 39 days since President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, and Iran is set to host its Presidential elections on June 28 with the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei calling for "maximum turnout".
Of the 400 candidates who registered to contest these elections, Iran’s Ministry of Interior accepted 80 candidatures, and from them, six were shortlisted to contest. However, hours ahead of the voting, two candidates -- Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi and Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani -- dropped out of the race.
The remaining candidates include conservative speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and the ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Just one reformist candidate, Massoud Pezeshkian, who is a lawmaker representing Tabriz in Iran's parliament, is running in the elections.
The conservative former interior minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi has also been authorized to run. Mohammad Mokhber, who was appointed acting president, is not among the candidates.
Iran's 14th presidential election, initially set for 2025, was rescheduled following the unexpected death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19 in the northwestern province of East Azerbaijan.
The Joe Biden administration is permitting Iran to set up absentee voter sites for its upcoming presidential election on US soil, Voice of America (VOA) reported. While Iranian citizens will reportedly be able to cast ballots at one of 30 voting stations across the United States, four polling centers have been established in India to facilitate voting.
Despite allowing absentee voting, the US State Department told VOA that “it has no expectation” that the June 28 Iranian elections “will be free or fair”. Voter turnout has reportedly plunged over the past four years, with a mostly young population chafing at political and social restrictions. A poll of more than 77,000 Iranian voters conducted by a Dutch research group suggested that at least 65 per cent of Iranians will boycott the election.
On the economic front, Iran continues to face the burden of choking US sanctions amid Tehran's tacit insistence on becoming a nuclear power. But it still has friends in Russia and Central Asia. In recent years, Tehran has found New Delhi as a credible economic partner. The two countries recently formalized a crucial Chabahar port deal.
