While the ultimate head of the Iranian state is the unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the president is the second-most powerful position.

Six candidates have been approved to run for the presidency, and they are all ultimately supportive of and loyal to the supreme leader and the Iranian political system.

Let’s take a closer look at the candidates and what might come next in Iran.

Who are the candidates running for president?

The six are:

• Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf – parliamentary speaker, former mayor of Tehran and former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) air force commander
• Saeed Jalili – Expediency Discernment Council member, former chief nuclear negotiator
• Alireza Zakani – mayor of Tehran
• Masoud Pezeshkian – member of parliament
• Mostafa Pourmohammadi – former interior and justice minister
• Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi – head of Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs

(Al Jazeera)

How are they chosen?

After individuals submit their candidacy papers during a period set by election officials, they are all vetted by the Guardian Council, which makes the final decision on who can run.

The Guardian Council is a committee of 12 appointed members that wields considerable power in Iran.

How many candidates were rejected?

This year, as in the previous election, the Guardian Council rejected most of the applications – the 74 rejected candidates including some famous faces.

Perhaps the most well-known, particularly internationally, is former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served between 2005 and 2013.

Others rejected include the moderate former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani – who was considered one of the frontrunners – and former Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri.

The Guardian Council does not explain why it has rejected a candidate publicly. What is known is that its members decide on a candidacy on the basis of perceived loyalty to the government of Iran.

Is there a favourite to win the election?

Ghalibaf and Jalili stand out as the immediate frontrunners. Both are conservatives, although Ghalibaf is seen as more relatively moderate, while Jalili is a hardliner.

Jalili ticks a lot of boxes when looking at a potential winner, at least when it comes to support from the establishment. He has strong ties with Khamenei and the powerful paramilitary IRGC.

He was also close to Raisi and would be the continuation candidate, having withdrawn in favour of the late president in the 2021 election.

Ghalibaf, on the other hand, is a technocrat, and also has close ties to the IRGC and Khamenei, but will come under attack from ultra-conservative media outlets.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf at a press conference after registering as a candidate for the presidential election at the Interior Ministry, in Tehran on June 3, 2024 [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]

Pezeshkian is the only candidate representing reformist Iranian politics, with other similar contenders not approved to run.

His only chance of success is if the conservative vote is split between Ghalibaf and Jalili and enough reformist Iranians vote.

However, the reformist movement in Iran was already weak politically, with many anti-government Iranians refusing to participate in the political system so as not to legitimise it.

Can any political changes be expected in Iran after the election?

The short list of approved candidates, and the political currents they largely adhere to, are signs that Iran will likely continue on its current political path following the election.

The election comes at a sensitive time for Iran, with a regional crisis as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza threatening to drag Iran into direct conflict.

The country also still has a strong anti-government movement, although protests have died down after being cracked down on by the state. The protests had started in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman accused of not adhering to the country’s dress code for women.

The movement turned off an increasing number of Iranians from the political system, which will likely further entrench the conservative wing of the country in power, at least in the short term.

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The commemoration ceremony for the martyred Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage was held in Tehran in the presence of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

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Iran’s government cabinet has appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani as the head of the international committee of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, following the martyrdom of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in a helicopter crash.

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Mohammad Mokhber is Iran’s interim president now after late President Ebrahim Raisi and other officials were confirmed killed in a helicopter crash and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved his accession to the role.

The former first vice president held an extraordinary meeting with judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker, on Monday morning.

As per the constitution, the three must set things in motion for a new presidential election to be held within 50 days.

Mokhber will remain interim president until then. “We will follow the path of Raisi in doing the duties entrusted without any disruptions,” he was quoted as saying by state media.

First vice president

Mokhber was appointed first vice president by Raisi in August 2021, shortly after Raisi took office.

He is the seventh person to serve in that role since the revision of the constitution in 1989 – and one of the most influential.

As first vice president, Mokhber traveled across the country to inaugurate a variety of government development projects and accompanied Raisi or led delegations himself on many foreign trips. He is reported to have visited Russia, along with senior military and security officials, to discuss arms transfers.

Mokhber was on a list of individuals and entities sanctioned by the European Union in 2010 for alleged involvement in activities concerning Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Two years later, the bloc removed him from the list.

Unlike other countries, Iran’s first vice presidency is an appointed – not elected – position that assumed some of the powers of the prime minister after the position was abolished in 1989.

There are several appointed vice presidents serving concurrently in Iran, each taking on different aspects of executive affairs but operating mostly like a cabinet.

Mokhber’s position was the top among vice presidents.

He was selected because he had a strong connection with the office of the supreme leader, like the late president himself, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

He was also seen as a man of action with longstanding experience in managing large-scale executive affairs.

Setad

Before his appointment to the vice presidency, Mokhber served for 14 years as head of Iran’s Setad, or the Organisation for the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order.

Setad is a highly powerful economic conglomerate established under Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to focus on charitable affairs.

It is now believed to be worth tens of billions of dollars and remains under the direct control of the Iranian supreme leader.

Setad and Mokhber were sanctioned by the United States in 2021, with the US Treasury claiming the organisation was involved in rights violations among other things, including violating “the rights of dissidents by confiscating land and property from opponents of the regime”.

Mokhber was the head of Setad during the onset of COVID-19, at a time when Iran was hit by far the worst by the pandemic in the Middle East. Nearly 150,000 people died of COVID, according to official numbers – with actual numbers believed to be much higher.

Under his watch, Setad developed COVIran Barekat, the main coronavirus vaccine manufactured by the state.

Early life

Born in Dezful in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, the 68-year-old was educated in electrical engineering and also holds a PhD in international law.

He was active in banking and communications earlier in his career, having operated as the head of the Khuzestan Telecommunications Authority and then being promoted to deputy governor of the province in the 1990s.

Before moving up to the Setad, Mokhber was a deputy at another bonyad, the powerful Mostazafan Foundation which was also founded by Supreme Leader Khomeini as a charitable foundation.

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Serge Gellé was one of two survivors. Two other people, a gendarme and the pilot are still missing and feared dead.

The surviving secretary of state and gendarme were found separately by local residents on the beach at Mahambo, about 75km north of Toamasina, the major port city in eastern Madagascar, the director of the maritime authority, Jean-Edmond Randrianantenaina, said.

He said the two men had “been separated at sea. They were not together”.

Gellé, who was rescued by locals, said in a video posted on social media: “I’m not going to die yet, thanks to God” and “to the villagers and fishermen of Mahambo”.

The minister, a 57-year-old gendarmerie general, said he had “no injuries, only cold”. “I will be able to return to work within 24 hours,” he added. General Ravoavy, who worked with General Gellé for many years, described him as “a military man of character”.

“He has always practiced sport with great endurance. And he has kept this rhythm even while being a minister, as a 30-year-old. He has strong morale, he was thrown by the waves and he didn’t give up,” he said, adding that Gellé had used a seat cushion from the helicopter as a lifeline.

The helicopter was heading for Antseraka, a small town off the coast of which a ship sank on Monday morning with 130 people on board, 45 of whom were rescued.

On Tuesday morning, the death toll stood at 21 passengers, but in the afternoon, the boat washed ashore and 18 more bodies were discovered, bringing the death toll to 39, according to Gendarmerie General Zafisambatra Ravoavy.

The search was continuing for nearly 50 missing people.

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