Iran's Guardian Council, consisting of six clerics and six jurists tasked with interpreting Iran's constitution, rejected the majority of the candidates for the upcoming presidential elections, reported DPA, quoted by BTA.
The snap election was called after previous President Ebrahim Raisi died on May 19 in a helicopter crash.
A total of 80 people submitted applications to participate in the June 28 presidential election, but only six candidates were approved, a spokesman for the electoral body said today on state television.
Among those rejected are former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and conservative former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, who was considered the front-runner.
Moderate politicians and candidates from the reformist camp were also not allowed to participate in the elections.
The representative of the ultra-conservative camp Said Jalili, a hardliner and former chief nuclear negotiator, and the acting speaker of the parliament and former general of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf will be able to appear in the elections.
Also admitted are Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi - another hardliner and chairman of the Martyrs and Veterans Foundation, former Minister of Health Massoud Pezeshkian, identified as a moderate candidate, Mostaf Pour-Mohammadi - Islamic scholar and former Minister of Interior and Justice , who is said to have played a role in mass executions in the 1980s, and Alireza Sakani, the current mayor of Tehran.
The interim president of Iran, Mohammad Mohbar, was considered a promising candidate, but he did not even register to participate in the elections, DPA notes.
In Iran, unlike many other countries, the president is not the head of state, but heads the government. Supreme power is concentrated in the hands of the 85-year-old religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei also exerts decisive influence on the Guardian Council. As a result, citizens can only choose from a pool of candidates who are loyal to the system.
The Guardian Council consists of 12 Islamic clerics and jurists, half of whom are elected by parliament and the other half appointed by Khamenei. The council assesses how well the laws comply with the constitution, and they decide who meets the criteria to stand for election. Because of its important role in the political system, the Guardian Council has been criticized in the past as an undemocratic body.
The chairman of the council is the 97-year-old Ayatollah Ahmad Janati.