Iran's snap presidential vote: All you need to know...
Iran's snap presidential vote: All you need to know...Eighty Iranians have registered their candidacy for the country's june 28 presidential elections, brought forward by the death of Ebrahim Raisi, but many may still be disqualified before campaigning begins.- Who has applied? -At the end of the five-day registration period on Monday, Interior minister Ahmad Vahidi said 80 presidential hopefuls have submitted their candidacy. They include more conservative and even ultraconservative figures than moderates or reformists, as well as a number of middle-ranking clerics and four women. The best-known candidate is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who wishes, at 67, to return to the post of president which he held for two consecutive terms from 2005 to 2013.The populist politician is associated with incendiary remarks about israel and simmering tensions with the West, particularly over the Iranian nuclear programme. Other senior figures in the Islamic republic are also in the running: current parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a conservative, former speaker ali Larijani, a moderate figure, and Saeed Jalili, an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator. As he submitted his bid on Monday, Ghalibaf said he was hopeful that, if elected, he could resolve the problems of the country including "reduction in purchasing power, poverty, discrimination, inequality and sanctions".Iran has been gripped by biting Western sanctions mostly over its nuclear programme but also for its human rights record and military cooperation with Russia. The candidate list -- which is not yet final -- also includes Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, former central bank governor Abdolnasser Hemmati and Eshaq Jahangiri, a reformist former first vice-president.