TEHRAN, Iran: Iranians will vote on Friday to elect new president from six candidates, including a lone reformist who hopes to challenge the dominance of conservatives in the Islamic Republic.
The presidential election, originally scheduled for 2025, was brought forward following the tragic death of ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.
The snap poll occurs at a challenging time for Iran, which is grappling with the economic impact of international sanctions amid heightened regional tensions over the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas. This election also takes place just five months before a presidential election in the United States.
Leading contenders for Iran’s second highest-ranking office include conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and the sole reformist candidate, Massoud Pezeshkian. Other candidates are conservative Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani, cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi, and incumbent vice president Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, the ultraconservative head of the Martyrs’ Foundation.
The six candidates have conducted largely low-key campaigns, including televised debates where they vowed to tackle economic challenges and offered varied views on Iran’s relations with the West. Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group emphasized that the new president will also have to address the deepening “fissure between the state and society.” He noted, “Nobody has presented a plan of how they are going to deal with a lot of these issues.”
