Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say on all major policy issues.
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Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called for “high participation” in Friday's presidential election to choose a successor to Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash last month.
“I stress the importance of high participation (in the elections) because it is the pride of the Islamic Republic,” Khamenei declared in a televised address three days before the vote.
“In every election where there has been a low turnout, the enemies of the Islamic Republic have blamed us,” he added.
Voters will choose from among 80 candidates who have declared their candidacy and six others selected by the Council of Guardians, a conservative-dominated unelected body.
The three most likely candidates are conservative Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Said Djalili and reformist lawmaker Massoud Pezeshkian.
In the last presidential election in 2021, the government nullified many reformists and moderates, allowing conservative candidate Raisi to easily win and succeed moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
Turnout was 49 percent, the lowest in a presidential election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The supreme leader, who has final say on all major policy issues, in a speech on Tuesday criticized “some Iranian politicians who believe that all roads to progress go through the United States,” a country that Iran considers an adversary.
Khamenei did not name the politician he was referring to, but his remarks were likely directed at Reform candidate Pezeshkian.
He is seeking improved ties with Washington to lift tough U.S. sanctions that are weighing heavily on Iran's economy.
The next president will have to tackle a host of economic challenges, including rising inflation and high unemployment, against a backdrop of regional tensions, the war in Gaza and international concerns about Iran's nuclear program.
