TEHRAN/ISLAMABAD: Iran’s hardliner ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election this month, state media reported.
The Islamic republic will head to the polls on June 28 to elect a successor to ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19.
Ahmadinejad, 67, served two consecutive terms as president from 2005 to 2013, a tenure characterized by a standoff with the West over Iran’s nuclear program and his inflammatory comments about Israel.
His candidacy, like all others, must be approved by the Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated body of 12 jurists that vets all candidates for public office.
Ahmadinejad was previously disqualified from running in the 2021 and 2017 presidential elections.
“I am confident that all the country’s problems can be solved by making maximum use of national capacities,” Ahmadinejad stated after submitting his candidacy at the interior ministry on Sunday.
In 2005, Ahmadinejad gained international notoriety when he declared that Iran’s arch-enemy Israel was doomed to be “wiped off the map” and claimed that the Holocaust was a “myth.”
Nationwide protests erupted against Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009, with the state’s crackdown resulting in dozens of deaths and thousands of arrests.
Candidate registration began on Thursday and will close on Monday.
Other notable figures, including moderate former parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani and ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, have also registered their bids.
The Guardian Council will announce the final list of candidates on June 11 after completing its vetting process.
