DUBAI, June 27 (AP): A candidate in Iran's presidential election withdrew from the race late Wednesday, becoming the first to back out in order for hard-liners to coalesce around a unity candidate in the vote to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi.
Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, 53, dropped his candidacy and urged other candidates to do the same "so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened," the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
Ghazizadeh Hasehmi served as one of Raisi's vice presidents and as the head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. He ran in the 2021 presidential election and received just under 1 million votes, coming in last place.
Such withdrawals are common in the final hours of an Iranian presidential election, particularly in the last 24 hours before the vote is held when campaigns enter a mandatory quiet period without rallies. Voters go to the polls Friday.
Ghazizadeh Hashemi's decision leaves five other candidates still in the race. Analysts broadly see the race at the moment as a three-way contest.
Two hard-liners, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, are fighting over the same bloc, experts say. Then there's the sole reformist in the race, Masoud Pezeshkian, a cardiac surgeon who has associated himself with the former administration of the relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who reached Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran's theocracy under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has maintained its stance of not approving women or anyone calling for radical change to the country's government for the ballot.
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