Iran Election Update: Candidate Withdraws Amidst Vetting

Davood Manzoor, head of the Planning and Budget Organization, announced his withdrawal from the June 28 presidential race in Iran, a week after registering to run.

The announcement was made through a social media post on X, where Manzoor cited the overwhelming presence of Revolutionary Front hardliner candidates and the presence of more suitable options as his reasons for stepping back.

The development comes in the wake of the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, which has led to the announcement of a snap election on June 28.

The practice of announcing candidacies only to withdraw later is seen as a move by many in Iran to garner visibility and influence in the political arena. It is anticipated that many of the 80 candidates who registered to run will also soon withdraw in hope of getting their share in the next administration.

While the Guardian Council, a 12-member body under the control of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has initiated vetting the hopefuls to announce the final candidates, Ezzatollah Zarghami, the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, in an interview on Saturday, expressed hopes that the council will be more generous in approving a varied list of candidates than in previous years.

However, Hadi Tahhan Nazif, spokesperson for the council, denied any allegations of election engineering in an interview, claiming that the Council impartially assesses the qualifications of all candidates, irrespective of their political affiliations.

The council has disqualified hundreds of candidates in both parliamentary and presidential elections over recent years, particularly since 2020.