ISTANBUL – Iran is holding elections on Friday to choose a successor to its president who was killed in a helicopter crash last month.
Iran’s critics are quick to point out that the country’s elections are not free or fair, and that the unelected supreme leader holds the most power. But the president is the highest elected official and can influence domestic and foreign policy.
Here are some key things to know about Iran’s presidential election.
When are the Iranian elections?
Voting in Iran begins on Friday, June 28, at 8 a.m. and polls are scheduled to close at 6 p.m. local time. The results may start coming out on Saturday.
This is not a regularly scheduled election – it probably won’t happen until next year. But the government called for so-called snap elections after the May 19 helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi, as well as the foreign minister and other officials.
Mohammad Mokhber, who was appointed as acting president, is not one of the candidates.
Who is the president of Iran?
Iran’s Guardian Council, tasked with vetting candidates, has whittled down a long list of hopefuls to just six candidates: five hardline conservatives and one reformist.
But in the lead-up to this week’s vote, two candidates dropped out of the race, according to Iranian news media. One of them is Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, the head of the Martyrs and Veterans Affairs Foundation who once served as Raisi’s vice president. The other is the mayor of the capital Tehran, Alireza Zakani. Nor is it reformist.
That leaves four candidates remaining.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf: Qalibaf, 62, is the speaker of Iran’s parliament, and a former mayor of Tehran. He had extensive military connections and was seen at first as a front runner.
Saeed Jalili: A hard-line conservative and former nuclear negotiator with strong anti-Western views, 58-year-old Jalili is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, in which he lost his leg. Before that, he was a member of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Masoud Pezeshkian: The only reformist candidate is also the oldest at 69. He has called for greater outreach to the outside world as a means of improving Iran’s economy.
Mostafa Pourmohammadi: The 64-year-old is the only Shiite cleric running in this election. He has served in Iran’s Ministry of Interior and Intelligence, among other positions.
Are the results important?
For Iranian hardliners, the goal is to keep the presidency, and critics say the Guardian Council has laid the groundwork for that to happen. This is not the same as holding power – in Iran, the power to make major decisions rests with the top leadership.
But with long-time Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reaching 85 years of age, there is speculation about who might succeed him. The late President Raisi himself is considered Khamenei’s protégé and possible successor.
Reform voters want to see a surprise presidential victory for their candidate – although in Pezeshkian’s recent campaign some people, including younger voters, have been disappointed with his position.
Even so, there are signs that Iran’s top leadership wants to send a clear message that the relatively mild reformist ideas proposed by Pezeshkian – such as greater engagement with other countries – are unacceptable. Khamenei singled out a reformist candidate for criticism when he said those who believe “all the way forward” comes from the United States should not be supported.
Barring anything unexpected, observers do not predict much change will come out of this vote.
Neither candidate, for example, has promised to implement controversial policies, such as overturning the strict Islamic dress code for women that led to the arrest of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022 by Iran’s morality police. His death in custody, which the United Nations mission found to be illegal, sparked nationwide protests that were seen as the strongest threat to the regime since it came to power.