Iran conservatives shortlist 5 for presidential vote

Iran’s conservatives announce a shortlist of five presidential candidates on Thursday as they experimented with their first-ever democratic primary in a bid to find a leader to challenge President Hassan Rouhani.

Fearing another defeat at the hands of the moderate president in next month’s election, a new alliance called the Popular Front of Revolutionary Forces hopes to unite conservatives around a single figure.

Some 3,000 delegates gathered at an exhibition center on Tehran’s outskirts to vote for the shortlist, which was published by local media.

The list includes 56-year-old cleric Ebrahim Raiesi. Barely known a year ago, he is currently head of a powerful charitable foundation in the holy city of Mashhad and tipped as a possible successor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Also included was Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, 55, who came second to Rouhani in 2013. He earlier said he would not put himself forward, but was nominated by others.

The other selections were Parviz Fattah, head of another charitable foundation, and former MPs Alireza Zakani and Mehrdad Bazrpash, both fierce critics of the 2015 deal with world powers that saw sanctions eased in exchange for curbs to Iran’s nuclear program.

Analysts still see Rouhani as the frontrunner in the May 19 election, despite widespread anger over the country’s struggling economy.

Efforts to unite the conservative vote may prove difficult, with former hardline president Mahmud Ahmadinejad announcing Wednesday that he would back his deputy Hamid Baghaie as an independent.

— AFP