Iran schedules presidential election for June 28

ISLAMABAD: Interim President of Iran Mohammad Mokhbar has announced that the presidential election will be held on June 28.

According to the report, Iranian Interim President Mohammad Mokhbar chaired a special meeting that was attended by the Speaker of Iranian Parliament and the Head of the Judiciary.

In the meeting, it was decided to hold presidential elections on June 28.

As per the schedule of the presidential elections, the candidates will register themselves from May 30 to June 3 and then run their election campaign from June 12 to 27.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assigned vice president Mohammad Mokhber to assume interim duties after the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash a day earlier.

“In accordance with Article 131 of the constitution, Mokhber is in charge of leading the executive branch,” said Khamenei in a statement, adding that Mokhber will be required to work with the heads of legislative and judicial to prepare for presidential elections “within a maximum period of 50 days”.

Iranian state media said President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister died on Monday after their helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country. The government has not yet issued a confirmation of the leader’s death.

Rescue teams had been scouring the area since Sunday afternoon after a helicopter carrying Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials had gone missing.

Early Monday, relief workers located the missing helicopter, with state TV saying the president had died.

“The servant of Iranian nation, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi has achieved the highest level of martyrdom whilst serving the people,” state television said Monday, with Mehr news agency also saying he was dead.

State television broadcast photos of Raisi, with the voice of a man reciting the Koran playing in the background.

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Iran’s vice president for executive affairs Mohsen Mansouri posted on X a Koranic verse used to express condolences. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced on Monday five days of mourning for President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash.

“I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” said Khamenei in an official statement a day after the death of Raisi and other officials in the crash in East Azerbaijan province.  Iranians gathered on Tuesday to mourn at the funerary procession of president Ebrahim Raisi in the northwestern city of Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan province where he died unexpectedly in a helicopter crash. The helicopter lost communication while it was on its way back to Tabriz after Raisi attended a joint inauguration of a dam with his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, on their common border.