Candidates fire first salvos in Iran presidential race
The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) will air the draw for broadcasting live debates of presidential candidates on Sunday which saw one candidate launching his first criticism of the current administration.
The IRIB public relations office said representatives of the candidates will attend the ceremony at 10:00 p.m. local time (0530 GMT).
Radio Iran as well as IRIB TV1 and the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) channels will broadcast the event.
On Saturday, the Election Campaign Monitoring Committee revised an earlier decision not to broadcast live presidential debates after criticism from candidates and many Iranians.
Interior Ministry spokesman Seyyed Salman Samani said the decision was rescinded after members of the panel agreed by consensus to give live air time to the candidates to discuss their election plans.
First debate on Friday
On Sunday, Ehsan Qazizadeh Hashemi, a member of the IRIB council for presidential election campaigns, said the first three-hour debate will be held on Friday.
Campaigning for the vote officially started on April 21 after the five-day registration process for Iran’s 12th presidential election ended on April 15 and the Guardian Council started vetting presidential election hopefuls the following day.
The six candidates qualified to run in the race are Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim, Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, Es’haq Jahangiri, Hassan Rouhani, Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf and Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi.
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