ALBAWABA - Iran started voting today to choose a new president from a pool of conservative contenders after President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter disaster last month. According to Al-Jazeera, Six of over 80 candidates were accepted by the Guardian Council, with two conservatives resigning before the polls.
Muhammad Bagher Ghalibaf
The conservative parliament is led by former Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a close friend of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Ghalibaf has lost two presidential elections and withdrew from a third in 2017 to avoid splitting the conservative support in an election Raisi lost. Ghalibaf left the Revolutionary Guard in 2005 to run for president and was Tehran's mayor for 12 years. He helped pacify 2009 post-election rioting. However, human rights advocates accuse him of physically hitting protesters in 1999 and repressing the 2003 uprising as police commander. Ghalibaf has not addressed these charges.
Saeed Jalili
Conservative and former diplomat Saeed Jalili, who lost his right leg in the Iran-Iraq war, has a degree in political science and believes in "Velayat-e Faqih" or Ali Khamenei's leadership. Jalili was Khamenei's Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and principal nuclear negotiator from 2007 until 2012. He lost the 2013 presidential election. In Khamenei's office and the Expediency Discernment Council, Jalili mediated parliament-Guardian Council disagreements.
Peshkian Massoud
Only moderate reformist Massoud Pezeshkian, recognized by the Guardian Council, has reformist support. His campaign relies on millions of disillusioned people who haven't voted before 2020. Doctor Pezeshkian was Minister of Health under reformer Mohammad Khatami from 2001 to 2005 and a parliamentarian since 2008. He has openly attacked the government for their concealment of Mahsa Amini's 2022 death, which caused turmoil. Al Jazeera reported that Pezeshkian was forbidden from running in 2021.
The sole reformist candidate, Massoud Pezeshkian, is leading in some polls, followed by the hardliners Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Saeed Jalili. Pezeshkian is the only candidate trying to attract Western-oriented youth, which is why he is believed to have the most popularity in Iran.
Mostafa Pour Mohammadi
Candidates' lone cleric, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, was Interior Minister under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from 2005 to 2008. His internal security Deputy Intelligence Ministership lasted from 1990 until 1999. Pourmohammadi has been accused by human rights groups of assassinating Iranian dissident academics in 1998. In 1998, the Intelligence Ministry stated that renegade agents committed out the killings. He has not reacted. Pourmohammadi was accused by Human Rights Watch of mass-executing political detainees in 1988. He has never described his position in the "Death Committee" monitoring these killings.
