IRAN: Slate Of 5 Hardliners, 1 Reformist Confirmed For Presidential Race

The Guardian Council, a twelve-man group of senior clerics, confirmed on 9 June the six candidates that will be on the ballot in the upcoming 28 June presidential election. Reuters reports the candidates as, "...Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran's hardline parliament speaker and former Revolutionary Guards commander, Saeed Jalili, a conservative, who was former chief nuclear negotiator and ran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office for four years and Tehran's conservative mayor Alireza Zakani [...] Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist lawmaker, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a hardliner and a former interior minister, and Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi a conservative politician."

• Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was barred from running by the Council, which is ultimately overseen by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. As has been the case since the 1979 revolution, the president - depending on their support base and factional ties - can have an influence on gov't policy making, but it is the Supreme Leader that dictates the policy direction and issues decrees. 
• As AP notes, Qalibaf is seen as a frontrunner after, "Khamenei gave a speech last week alluding to qualities that Qalibaf’s supporters have highlighted as potentially signaling the supreme leader’s support for the speaker."
• Recent elections have seen record-low turnouts and coincided with heightened social unrest amid a crumbling economy and pushback against repressive social measures. As such the upcoming vote will be both closely watched outside Iran, but likely tightly controlled within in an effort to avoid widespread protests.