Tehran: The field of candidates thinned out on Wednesday two days ahead of Iran’s presidential election, in which a victory by cleric Ebrahim Raisi is widely seen as a foregone conclusion.
Two of the seven men approved to enter the lacklustre race pulled out, further boosting the position of Raisi, 60, in a vote where turnout is predicted to hit a record low.
Lawmaker Alireza Zakani withdrew and pledged to support Raisi, hours after former vice-president Mohsen Mehralizadeh, one of only two reformists allowed to run, had also thrown in the towel.
The election comes as economically ailing and pandemic-hit Iran is in talks with world powers to revive the battered 2015 nuclear deal and at pains to end a punishing US sanctions regime imposed under former president Donald Trump.
The vote will choose a successor to Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian architect of that deal, who cannot run again now after serving two consecutive four-year terms, and who leaves office in August.
Ultimate power in Iran, where a 1979 revolution toppled the monarchy, lies with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but the president has significant influence on issues from industrial policy to foreign affairs.
The expected winner, Raisi, the country’s judiciary chief and a cleric usually seen sporting a black turban and religious robe, has been mentioned in Iranian media as a possible successor to Khamenei.
Raisi belongs to the camp that most deeply distrusts the United States, and which has harshly criticised Rouhani since the nuclear deal started to unravel.
The landmark achievement of Rouhani’s eight years in power was the accord under which Tehran accepted limits on its nuclear programme in return for relief from international sanctions.
But hopes Iran would reap the benefits were dashed in 2018 when Trump ripped up the deal and launched a “maximum pressure” campaign aiming to diplomatically and economically isolate it. — AFP
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