The Guardian Council must first approve his candidacy, as well as any other candidates who want to run in the election.
Vahid Haganian is a former IRGC commander. [Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images]
A former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which is under U.S. sanctions, registered to run in next month's presidential election on Saturday, state media reported.
Like the other candidates, Vahid Haganian must wait to see whether his candidacy is approved by the Guardian Council, a 12-member, mostly conservative, body of jurists that vets all candidates for public office.
Little is publicly available about Haganian's history in the Guards, the ideological wing of the Iranian military.
Haganian, like the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who is seeking a successor, has been under U.S. sanctions since 2019 as an “aide responsible for advancing the regime's repression at home and abroad” of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Haganian said his candidacy was a “personal decision” but that he “fully understands the issues facing the country.”
He said he had built close relationships with key officials in state institutions “during the 45 years he served in the presidential administration and the supreme leader's office.”
General elections were held on June 28 after Raisi's death in a helicopter crash on May 19.
Registration for candidates opened on Thursday and closes on Monday.
Other candidates who have announced their candidacy include Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakhani and Zohre Elahian, a former lawmaker who is the first woman to run for office.
Also on the list are moderate former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, reformist former central bank governor Abdelnaser Hemmati and ultra-conservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
The Guardian Council is expected to announce the final list of candidates on June 11 after completing the vetting process.
The council disqualified several reformist and moderate candidates, including former Chairman Larijani, in the last presidential election in 2021.
