Iran to hold presidential elections on June 28 after Raisi’s death
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Iranians, among them women clad in black chadors, holding posters of late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as they take part in a mourning ceremony in Tehran, Iran.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
TEHRAN – Iran will hold presidential elections on June 28, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, following the death of Mr Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash over the weekend.
Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber will take on the role of president in the meantime, as per the constitution of the Islamic Republic.
Mr Raisi and eight others, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, were killed in north-western Iran after their helicopter went down in a mountainous area on May 19. The government blamed bad weather and dense fog.
Candidates can register from May 30 and individuals will be vetted by the Guardian Council, a 12-member body of clerics and jurists that administers elections.
It is unclear if Mr Mokhber will run.
Many Iran analysts have said it is likely the clerical establishment and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will want a president similar to Mr Raisi, an ultra-conservative cleric deeply distrusting of the US and Israel. In recent elections, the Guardian Council has made it difficult for reformists to stand.
Mr Raisi was a polarising figure in Iran. Many associate him with the mass arrests and executions that followed violent protests across the country in 2022 after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman detained for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code. BLOOMBERG
