Candidates make one last effort to vote before electoral silence

TEHRAN – With time running out before Iran’s June 28 presidential election, candidates stepped up their efforts to secure voter support on Tuesday and Wednesday, ahead of the looming campaign ban expected to take effect in the early hours of Thursday .

In addition to appearing on national television for their final 15 personal minutes with the Iranian people, the candidates embarked on trips to various provinces to appeal for support.

Reform candidate Masoud Pezeshkian visited Kerman and Yazd in his final days of campaigning, making various promises to the people and vowing not to betray their trust. “We are eliminating societal deprivations and working for a proud Iran alongside the people,” he told a gathering of Kermani residents on Wednesday.

Saeed Jalili raised the issue of economic inequality during his visit to Kerman the day before, emphasizing the need for fair wages in the province’s mines. He also criticized reformists for “overseeing a stagnation in economic growth” and called for using Kerman’s full capabilities to bring about justice.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf highlighted the impact of sanctions on Iran’s economy during his visit to East Azerbaijan, pledging to continue lifting sanctions if elected. He also warned of a return to a “period of recession” and highlighted his promise to establish a second economic capital on the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean coasts by next year .

Alireza Zakani, another conservative candidate, highlighted the importance of people’s sovereignty through their demands and control over officials during his interaction with students of the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of the University of Tehran .

The return of reformists accelerates while the conservatives struggle to unify

Analysts aligned with the conservative faction are sounding the alarm about the imminent prospect of a victory for reformer Pezeshkian, while conservative presidential candidates have not yet united behind a single figure.

Since the announcement of the list of official candidates by the Guardian Council, analysts have warned that conservatives risk losing Iran’s June 28 elections if they fail to consolidate their support behind a single candidate.

While key reformist figures such as former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and former President Mohamad Khatami have decided to support Pezeshkian, recent polls indicate that conservatives are now more likely to be defeated by reformists, who ruled the country for a total of 32 years. since the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

This concern was echoed by one of the conservative candidates, Amir-Hossein Hashemi Qazizadeh, who warned in an article published Wednesday on the opposing faction.”

However, despite Qazizadeh’s signal, the two main conservative presidential candidates, Qalibaf and Jalili, have not yet indicated their intention to step aside to support each other.