In Iran’s early presidential election, six candidates will compete for the office of presidency. They include Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Masoud Pezeshkian, Alireza Zakani, Saeed Jalili, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, and Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi.
Saeed Jalili
The 55-year old Saeed Jalili is trying his chance for the second time for the office of presidency in Iran after a failed run back in 2013.
Known for his rigid ideologue and belief in the founding principles of the Islamic Republic, his official campaign slogan this year is “great jihad for Iran’s leap.” He has a political science doctorate from Imam Sadeq University and also teaches “Prophet [Mohammad]’s Diplomacy” there.
In 2007, Jalili gained national fame after being appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, responsible for nuclear talks with Western powers. it was during this time that the harshest sanctions were imposed on Iran because of its nuclear program.
It was indeed for Jalili’s diplomatic rigidity to deliver sanctions relief that voters strongly rebuked him in 2013, handing him a third-place finish by receiving only 11 percent of the votes according to Iran’s statistics.
Jalili was also close to Raisi, the late President of Iran, and withdrew in favor of him in the 2021 election. That’s why experts now believe that if Jalili is to become president, he is expected to continue with Raisi’s policies.
Mostafa Pourmohammadi
Pourmohamadi, 64 years old, is another hardliner who is the only cleric among the candidates. His rise to power was rapid due to his close ties with fundamentalist clerics who took control of Iran’s judicial system following the 1979 revolution.
He was only 20 years old when he was appointed as Islamic Revolution Prosecutor in the city of Masjedsoleyman in the southwest of Iran.
Debates about whether Pourmohamadi can challenge other candidates are rare as he doesn’t seem to make much of a trouble for big names such as Ghalibaf, Jalili, and Pezeshkian.
Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi
Ghazizadeh Hashemi is a war veteran and he was only 15 years old when he joined the Basij paramilitary forces fighting in the Iran-Iraq war. He later joined a public school of medicine in the religious city of Mashhad.
Raising in a labor family in the small city of Fariman in the northeast of Iran, Ghazizadeh Hashemi served as a legislator from his hometown for 20 years. He now serves as the head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs.
Ghazizadeh Hashemi is also considered a conservative politician, but unlike other Basij and IRGC forces who announced their candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, he has not been much in the spotlight and has a low chance of getting elected as president of Iran.
This is mostly because he was one of the four candidates in the 2021 presidential election and received the lowest number of votes, with 3.46 percent of all the ballots cast in the election.
