In a press announcement by Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian regime’s Minister of Interior, the registration for presidential candidates has commenced and will continue for five days. This process follows the death of Ebrahim Raisi, the regime’s president, in a helicopter crash on May 19.
Following the death of Raisi and other senior officials, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called on state officials to promptly set the stage for new elections and make sure there is no void or reason for unrest.
In accordance with the regime’s constitution, a new presidential election must be held within 50 days in the event of a president’s death. Therefore, the registration period for presidential candidates will remain open until June 3. Subsequently, the Guardian Council will have seven days to vet “the candidates’ qualifications.”
Khamenei’s Blueprint for #Iranian Regime’s Next Governmenthttps://t.co/o1Z49BMhR7
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 23, 2024
Mohsen Eslami, spokesperson for Iran’s Election Headquarters, informed ISNA News Agency that “in the initial hours, 30 individuals came forward to register as presidential candidates, but none met the necessary qualifications for definitive registration after document review.”
According to the schedule released by the Ministry of Interior, the final list of approved candidates will be announced on June 11. Historical patterns suggest that only those candidates approved by the Guardian Council—a body that operates under the directives of the Supreme Leader—will be allowed to participate in the sham election.
In the last presidential election in 2021, the Guardian Council disqualified a significant number of prominent political figures, including former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then-Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, and even former Speaker of Parliament and Khamenei’s advisor Ali Larijani. The sham election was met with an unprecedented overwhelming boycott by the Iranian people and the blank vote came in second after Ebrahim Raisi.
#Raisi’s Death Cripples Khamenei’s Decade-Long Project to Maintain Rule over #Iran https://t.co/ibcs5oMwbB
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 22, 2024
The upcoming election, originally scheduled for June 2026, has been advanced due to Raisi’s death and will now take place on June 28. As the clerical regime readies for this expedited electoral cycle, the political atmosphere remains fraught, with the regime’s tight grip on candidate approvals expected to fuel factional strife and conflict.
On Thursday, May 29, despite Khamenei’s efforts to mitigate political tensions within the newly formed 12th parliament, heated discussions among its members and protests against the Parliament Speaker’s decision on whether to proceed with a vote erupted into physical altercations.
