Brief summary of presidential candidates' backgrounds

According to Iran’s Interior Ministry's press release, Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim, Es'haq Jahangiri, Hassan Rouhani, Ebrahim Raeisi, Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, and Mostafa Hashemi-Taba are the 6 candidates who have been approved to run for the upcoming election.

The following is a brief summary of the the six approved candidates' backgrounds:

** Hassan Rouhani, (born in 1948), the incumbent Iranian president, is a member of the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts, which appoints the country’s leader. The former posts he used to fill include membership of Majlis (Iranian Parliament) and headship of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

**Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim, (born in 1947), is currently the head of the Islamic Coalition Party’s Central Council. He is a conservative politician and engineer who served as the country’s minister of culture and Islamic Guidance from 1994-1997. From 1981 to 1989, he served as the advisor to then president Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

**Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, (born in 1947), was a vice president under former Presidents Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former minister of industries, and the former head of the Sports Organization.

**Es'haq Jahangiri, (1957) currently serves as the first vice president. He used to be minister of mines, the governor of Isfahan, and a parliamentarian.

**Mohammd Baqer Qalibaf, (born in 1961) currently the mayor of Tehran, was a former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ Air Force, an ex-chief of the national police, and a former commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbya Air Defense Base.

**Ebrahim Raeisi, (born in 1960), is currently the custodian of Razavi Holy Shrines, the organization managing the affairs of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (PBUH), the eighth Shia Imam, in the city of Mashad. He has already served as head of supervisory council at Radio and Television (Seda-Sima), Country’s prosecutor general, general prosecutor for clerics, member of association of combatant clerics in Tehran and presiding member of assembly of experts.

The qualified candidates can start their election campaign from now until May 18.

The Guardian Council started the process of screening 1,636 hopefuls registered for the May 19 presidential election on Sunday.

The 12th presidential and the 5th City and Village Councils Elections will be simultaneously held nationwide on May 19.

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