Iran Opens Registration For Presidential Candidates

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published May 30, 2024 | 07:08 PM

Iran on Thursday began the formal registration of presidential candidates ahead of a snap vote next month to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash

Tehran, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th May, 2024) Iran on Thursday began the formal registration of presidential candidates ahead of a snap vote next month to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash.

"Candidate registration for the 14th presidential elections began at 8 am (0430 GMT)... at the interior ministry," the official IRNA news agency said.

Presidential hopefuls will have five days to register, IRNA added.

The elections were originally slated for 2025 but were brought forward following Raisi's unexpected death on May 19.

Raisi and seven members of his entourage, including foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were killed when their aircraft came down on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northern Iran.

The Islamic republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has since assigned vice president Mohammad Mokhber, 68, as caretaker president in accordance with the constitution.

On Thursday, state tv reported that "around 30 people" came forward to submit applications for candidacy, but "none of them met the basic conditions for qualification".

An AFP correspondent later saw former reformist lawmaker Mostafa Kavakebian and incumbent conservative parliamentarian Mohammadreza Sabaghian submitting their applications at the ministry.