Elections reveal Iran's future direction

Iran is once again facing a historic moment as it prepares for early presidential elections on June 28, following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.

According to Al Azeera news agency, this election may partly reveal the Iranian government's future plans for the country.

Is the political establishment ready to ease political and social tensions at home and open up to the world, or will it maintain confrontational policies abroad? The president who emerges from the June election will provide the answer.

According to the AP news agency, on June 9, the Guardian Council - the body that oversees elections in Iran - approved the hard-line speaker of parliament and five others to be candidates for the presidential election on June 28. The council banned former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a populist, from running.

The guardian council's decision represents the starting gun in a two-week campaign to replace the late President Raisi, a hard-line follower of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and also seen as a possible successor to the 85-year-old cleric.

The selection of candidates approved by the Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists overseen by Mr Khamenei, shows Iran’s Shiite regime hopes to smooth the election after recent ballots saw record low turnout and tensions over the nuclear issue remain high, as well as the Israel-Hamas war.

The new election campaign could include live debates on Iranian state television. Candidates will also give campaign speeches to attract supporters.

So far, none of the candidates have laid out any specific plans for the campaign. What they have in common is a promise of a better economic situation in Iran, which is under sanctions from the United States and other Western countries.

The most prominent candidate remains Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, 62, a former mayor of Tehran with close ties to the Revolutionary Guards.

Mr. Qalibaf ran unsuccessfully for president in 2005 and 2013. In 2017, he withdrew from the presidential campaign to support Mr. Raisi. President Raisi eventually won the 2021 election.

Last week, Supreme Leader Khamenei made a speech alluding to the qualities pointed to by Qalibaf’s supporters, potentially signaling the supreme leader’s support for Qalibaf.

Other candidates on the list include Saeed Jalili, a former senior nuclear negotiator who ran in 2013; Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani; former justice minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi; and Vice President Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, who ran in the 2021 presidential election and finished last with less than 1 million votes.

Mr. Masoud Pezeshkian is the only reformist candidate on the list but he is considered to have little chance.

The election comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over accusations that the country has supplied weapons to Russia in its war with Ukraine, and the rise of pro-Iranian militias across the Middle East has also raised concerns in the West.