Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Former Iranian President Ahmadinejad will run again as head of the country, according to state television

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered to run in June 28 presidential elections, held after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, Iranian state television reported Sunday.

However, he could be excluded from the race: the country’s Guardian Council, led by clerics, will examine the candidates and publish the list of qualifiers on June 11.

Ahmadinejad, a former member of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, was first elected Iranian president in 2005 and resigned due to term limits in 2013.

The Guardian Council barred him from running in the 2017 elections, a year after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned him that his participation was “not in his interest or that of the country.” .

A rift developed between the two after Ahmadinejad explicitly advocated checking Khamenei’s ultimate authority.

In 2018, in a rare criticism of Khamenei, Ahmadinejad wrote to him calling for “free” elections.

Khamenei had supported Ahmadinejad after his 2009 re-election sparked protests in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds arrested, shaking the ruling theocracy, before security forces led by the Guards Corps the elite revolution (IRGC) does not eradicate the unrest.