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Reformist Candidate, Two Hard-Liners Drop Out Of Iran's Presidential Election

By RFE/RL June 16, 2021

A reformist candidate and two hard-liners have dropped out of Iran's presidential election on the last day of the campaign -- leaving just four candidates in the June 18 vote.

Iranian media report that Mohsen Mehralizadeh, a 64-year-old former vice president under reformist President Mohammad Khatami, withdrew from the race on June 16 along with the hard-line candidates Alireza Zakani and Saeed Jalili.

Mehralizadeh was one of only two reformists permitted to run in the election to replace President Hassan Rohani, who has served the maximum two consecutive terms.

Zakani, who heads the parliament's research center, became known as a lawmaker for his outspoken opposition to Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Zakani also has served since the late 1990s as the head of Iran's volunteer Basij paramilitary militia -- an organization established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 that is affiliated with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Jalili served as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council for five years from 2007. He was appointed in 2013 as a member to the powerful Expediency Council -- a body that advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The election is widely expected to be won by ultraconservative judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi -- a candidate seen as being close to Khamenei.

Zakani threw his support behind Raisi on June 16, saying he considers Raisi to be "the most qualified." Jalili called on his backers to vote for his "dear brother" Raisi.

Other candidates were expected to quit the race later on June 16 after more than 200 lawmakers in Iran's parliament, which is dominated by hard-liners, urged remaining hard-liner candidates to withdraw and back Raisi.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reports that Mehralizadeh resigned in a letter sent to Iran's Interior Ministry, which runs the country's elections.

Mehralizadeh's withdrawal is likely to boost the chances of the other candidate still in the race who is considered a reformist -- 66-year-old former Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati.

Hemmati has been running as a moderate and as a stand-in for Rohani. Public opinion polls show him trailing Raisi.

Opinion polls suggest voter turnout could be less than the record low of 57 percent registered in parliamentary elections in February 2020.

Thousands of candidates, many of them moderates and reformists, were barred from running in that election.

Iran's presidential election comes amid talks between Tehran and world powers aimed at reviving a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

It also comes against a backdrop of popular discontent about a severe economic and social crisis in the sanctions-hit country.

The coronavirus pandemic also appears to be contributing to voter apathy.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/reformist-candidate- mehralizadeh-iran-election/31310681.html

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.