Eight of them were retained from the 686 applicants for the June 14, 2013 election.
The authorities in Iran have released the names of eight presidential candidates for next month’s election, with two of the leading contenders disqualified, BBC reported yesterday, May 22, 2013.
Those disqualified are former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close ally of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad, who is not eligible for a third consecutive four-year term, has promised to take up the disqualification of Mashaei with the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Guardian Council trimmed the list of candidates from 686 to eight.
Voters will elect the seventh President of Iran on Friday, 14 June 2013. If no candidate polls 50 per cent of the vote in the first round, a runoff will be held on June 21. According to the AP news agency, there is no clear frontrunner for now among those retained. Ali Akbar Velayati, 67, a physician, is a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on international affairs. He was Foreign Minister in the 1980s and 1990s. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, 51, a pilot, is Mayor of the capital, Tehran, and a former Commander of the Revolutionary Guards during the Iran-Iraq war.
Other candidates are Hasan Rowhani, 64, a former nuclear negotiator and Ayatollah Khamenei's representative on the Supreme National Security Council; Mohammad Reza Aref, 61, a former Vice President and Chancellor of Tehran University; Mohsen Rezaei, 58, a former Chief Commander of the Revolutionary Guards, and Saeed Jalili, 47, Iran's top nuclear negotiator since 2007. Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, 68, is a former Speaker of Parliament while Mohammad Gharazi, 71, former Oil and Telecommunications Minister,
