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VOA — Iran’s election watchdog has approved seven candidates for the country’s June 18 presidential election, including judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, while disqualifying several prominent figures.
Raisi is the most well known of the candidates allowed to run by the Guardian Council, and is a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
State television said the other candidates include former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei, former lawmaker Ali Reza Zakani, lawmaker Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh, former provincial governor Mohsen Mehralizadeh, and the current head of Iran’s Central Bank Abdolnasser Hemmati.
The council barred former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, a conservative who had allied with President Hassan Rouhani, from running.
It also disqualified pragmatist First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangir, as well as former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
