There are now just three candidates remaining in the contest for the elected position of President of Iran after three gave up between Wednesday, June 26, and Thursday morning.

On Friday, June 28, Iran will hold a snap election to choose a new president. This is necessary to fill the position left empty by the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter accident last month, May 19.

The mayor of Tehran, Alireza Zakani, announced his withdrawal on Thursday in a post on X. Previously, on Wednesday night, Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi announced his withdrawal from the race and urged other contenders to follow in his footsteps “so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened.”

The conservative group remaining in contention is split between Speaker of the Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who are fighting for the same bloc.

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Both are the front-runners.

For the past four years, Bagher Ghalibaf, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air force commander, has served as speaker of the parliament.

Ghalibaf had three presidential campaigns in 2005, 2013 and 2017. He served as Tehran’s mayor from 2005 to 2017 and as the police head before that.

As the direct representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the nation’s Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili withdrew from the 2021 election in favour of Raisi, who easily won.

The sole Shiite cleric running for office, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, was the third candidate. He had previously held the positions of Interior Minister under hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Justice Minister under Hassan Rouhani.

The three seem set as Iranians tally the hours to select the next in line for the late Ebrahim Raisi.

Mohammad Mokhber: What you should know about Iran’s Acting President

Every four years, all Iranians who are registered to vote cast their ballots to choose the country’s President.

The President is the head of the executive branch and has the second most important job in the nation, behind the position of supreme leader. The President is the most directly elected politician.

Within the unique political framework of the nation, the President is far less powerful than the Supreme Leader, who is currently 85-year-old Ali Khamenei.

On May 30, the deadline for filing to run for President, 80 individuals submitted their applications, four of them female.

The Guardian Council approved only six people to be the nominees for the election, and on June 9, they revealed the final list of candidates.

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