- Interim President Mokhber also plans to run in the presidential election.
- Former President Ahmadinejad is undecided about registering for the elections.
- Former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili will also run as a candidate.
In the wake of the sudden death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Iran has now shifted its focus on finding his successor to lead the country.
The Islamic Republic's conservative camp is searching for a loyalist to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the run-up to the vote scheduled for June 28.
The country's Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated investigative body, will approve the candidacy of candidates for the position of president.
The ultra-conservative Raisi lost his life on May 19, along with his Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and six other people, when the helicopter carrying them crashed due to bad weather in the mountains near the border with Azerbaijan. .
Riasi still had more than a year left in his term as president.
However, the June vote will take place during a turbulent time, with Iran facing sustained economic difficulties, exacerbated by tough sanctions reimposed by the United States after it withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state, has assigned Raisi's vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, 68, the task of taking on interim duties over the coming weeks and organizing June elections.
Media reports suggest that Mokhber himself plans to run, as do parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and several prominent former officials.
Among other candidates, the ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was one of the first to announce his desire to run.
Other contenders include moderate former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and centrist Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker.
Populist former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has so far kept voters guessing, saying he is “checking the conditions to decide whether to register or not.”
“We have to wait for positive developments in the country,” he added.
— Additional contribution from the AFP
