Mohsen Mehralizadeh withdraws from presidential election

Iranian media reported on Wednesday, June 16, that Mohsen Mehralizadeh, one of the candidates in Iran's presidential election, has withdrawn from the race.

IRNA and Fars news agencies reported that Mohsen Mehralizadeh announced his withdrawal from continuing to participate in the election campaign in a letter to the Minister of Interior.

Ali Tajernia, spokesman for Mohsen Mehralizadeh's campaign headquarters, confirmed his withdrawal from the presidential election process and said: "Mr. Mohsen Mehralizadeh has written a letter to the Ministry of Interior and has announced in writing his withdrawal from continuing to participate in the elections."

According to ISNA, Ali Tajernia added: "An official statement on this matter will be issued in the next few hours."

The positions of Mohsen Mehralizadeh and Abdolnaser Hemmati are close to those of the reformists, but the Reform Front had previously announced that it would not field a candidate in this term and did not support Abdolnaser Hemmati in the Monday evening vote.

Iran's presidential elections will be held on June 18, and with the withdrawal of Mohsen Mehralizadeh, six other candidates now remain in the race.

Saeed Jalili, Mohsen Rezaei Mirqaed, Ebrahim Raisi, Alireza Zakani, Seyyed Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, and Abdolnaser Hemmati are the six candidates for the 13th presidential election.

Previously, news had been released of Alireza Zakani's candidacy for the 13th presidential election in favor of Ebrahim Raisi.

But on Sunday, a spokesman for Alireza Zakani's campaign denied this news.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the country's election headquarters said on Wednesday that the results of the 1400 presidential election will be announced by noon on Saturday, June 19.

Esmail Mousavi told Channel One: "In the past, we were in direct contact with the branches of the Ministry of Interior, and the minutes of each branch's meeting were immediately visible at the country's headquarters."

The spokesperson for the country's election headquarters added: "During this period, the results and minutes of the meeting are to be sent simultaneously from the branch to the Ministry of Interior and the Guardian Council, and this will accelerate and consolidate the summarization and announcement of the results. Therefore, our prediction is that we will announce the results of the presidential election before Saturday afternoon."

In the 2000 presidential election, more than 592 people registered, but the Guardian Council only qualified seven of them.

A number of former and current officials of the Islamic Republic, including Ali Larijani, former Speaker of the Parliament, Eshaq Jahangiri, First Vice President of Hassan Rouhani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former President, Ali Motahari, former Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, and Mostafa Tajzadeh, Deputy Minister of the Interior in the first government of Mohammad Khatami, were disqualified.

Some political activists and figures from the Green Movement, including Abolfazl Ghadiani, the families of those killed in Aban, and the victims of the downing of the Ukrainian plane, have also called for a boycott of the elections.

Source: Radio Farda