Middle-East

Iran's ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to run in presidential election

Former Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at a press conference after registering as a candidate for the presidential election at the Interior Ministry in Tehra on June 2, 2024. (Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters)

By Reuters | Sunday, June 2, 2024

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be barred from the race: the country's cleric-led Guardian Council will vet candidates, and publish the list of qualified ones on June 11.

Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered to run for president in the country's June 28 election, organised after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, Iran's state television reported on Sunday.

However, he could be barred from the race: the country's cleric-led Guardian Council will vet candidates, and publish the list of qualified ones on June 11.

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Ahmadinejad, a former member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, was first elected as Iran's president in 2005 and stepped down because of term limits in 2013.

He was barred from standing in the 2017 election by the Guardian Council, a year after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned him that entering was "not in his interest or that of the country."

A rift developed between the two after Ahmadinejad explicitly advocated checks on Khamenei's ultimate authority.

In 2018, in rare criticism directed at Khamenei, Ahmadinejad wrote to him, calling for "free" elections.

Khamenei had backed Ahmadinejad after his 2009 re-election triggered protests in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds arrested, rattling the ruling theocracy before security forces led by the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) stamped out the unrest.