Iran opens registration for snap vote to pick new president after Raisi’s death

UNITED NATIONS – Iran on May 30 began the formal registration of presidential candidates ahead of a snap vote in June to replace the late president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash.

Once seen as a possible successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr Raisi’s sudden death has triggered a race among hardliners to influence the selection of Iran’s next leader.

Mr Raisi and seven members of his entourage, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian,

were killed on May 19

when their aircraft came down on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northern Iran.

After the five-day registration period, the Guardian Council, which oversees elections and legislation, will vet the candidates running for the presidency.

The council will publish the list of qualified candidates on June 11.

Moderate politicians have accused the 12-member hardline Guardian Council of disqualifying rivals to hardline candidates, who are expected to dominate the June 28 presidential race.

Within Iran’s complex mix of clerical rulers and elected officials, Mr Khamenei has the final say on state matters such as nuclear and foreign policies. But the elected president will be in charge of tackling worsening economic hardship.

The candidates could include Mr Parviz Fattah, a former Guards member who heads an investment fund linked to Mr Khamenei, and former chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili who in 2001 ran Mr Khamenei’s office for four years.

Interim President Mohammad Mokhber and former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani have also been mentioned in Iranian media as possible candidates.

Meanwhile, the 193-member UN General Assembly was set on May 30 to pay tribute to Mr Raisi, a ceremony that the United States had said it would boycott.

“We won’t attend this event in any capacity,” a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

The UN Security Council stood at the beginning of an unrelated meeting for a moment of silence on May 20 to remember the victims of the helicopter crash. Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood reluctantly stood with his 14 counterparts.

The US expressed its “official condolences” for Mr Raisi’s death, the State Department said on May 20.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby also said that day: “No question this was a man who had a lot of blood on his hands.”

Mr Raisi, 63, was elected president in 2021 and, in office, ordered a tightening of morality laws, oversaw a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers. REUTERS