Heart Surgeon, Tehran Mayor Contend for Iran’s Presidency
- Hard liners will dominate ballot following Raisi’s death
- Lone reformist candidate is surprise inclusion and leads poll
Iranians will elect a new president on June 28, in a poll triggered by the death in a helicopter crash last month of Ebrahim Raisi. Voters will choose from six men selected by the Guardian Council, a powerful and unelected chamber of 12 theologians and legal experts. Most of the candidates are anti-US hard liners but a lone reformist candidate, former Health Minister Masoud Pezeshkian, leads the latest poll released by the state-run Iranian Students’ Polling Agency.
Pezeshkian has edged into the lead over the past week, ahead of the hawkish former nuclear-programme negotiator Saeed Jalili, according to the ISPA poll published Monday. Of the 4,057 people surveyed over the weekend, just over half said they will either definitely vote or are very likely to vote, and a third said they won’t take part or are very unlikely to. Acting President Mohammad Mokhber, who stepped up after Raisi’s sudden demise, chose not to stand.