TEHRAN, May 28: After Iran mourned president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash, the nations focus turns to the election for his successor, with the conservative camp seeking a loyalist to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The lead-up to the June 28 vote has opened the field to a broad range of hopefuls. The big question now is how many of them will have their candidacies approved by the Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated vetting body.
Ultraconservative Raisi, who had more than a year left of his term, died on May 19 alongside his foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six others when their helicopter crashed into a fog-shrouded mountainside.
They were laid to rest after funeral rituals lasting several days that drew huge crowds of mourners.
The June vote will be held during a turbulent time, as the Gaza war rages between Irans arch-foe Israel and Tehran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas, and amid continued diplomatic tensions over Irans nuclear programme.
Iran also faces sustained economic hardship, exacerbated by tough sanctions reimposed by the United States after it withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state, has assigned Raisis vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, 68, to assume interim duties for the next few weeks and organise the June election.
Media reports suggest Mokhber himself plans a run, as do parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and several prominent former officials. —AFP
