Around 59 million Iranians, including 3.5 million Iranian diasporas, are eligible to vote in this year's election.

It will be the thirteenth presidential election in Iran. Under the Iranian constitution, Hassan Rouhani, the incumbent president, is ineligible to run for re-election as he was limited to two consecutive terms or 8 years in office.

Iran’s Guardian Council approved seven candidates to run in the presidential elections. The following seven candidates are approved by the council:

Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, current Deputy Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly

Abdolnaser Hemmati, current Governor of the Central Bank

Saeed Jalili, former Secretary of Supreme National Security Council

Mohsen Mehralizadeh, former Governor of Isfahan

Ebrahim Raisi, current Chief Justice of Iran

Mohsen Rezaee, former Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Alireza Zakani, current President of the Majlis Research Center.

After Celali, Mehralizadeh, and Zakani withdrew from the elections on Wednesday, four candidates are now vying for the top executive post of the country.

On the other hand, the council barred hundreds of candidates, including ex-parliament speaker Ali Larijani who was expected to be a main contender for the presidency.

The president of Iran is elected for a four years term that is renewable only once. It is the country's highest directly elected official, the chief of the executive branch, and the second most important position after the Supreme Leader.

Those approved by the Guardian Council are put to a public vote on the weekend. The winner is the candidate who got 50% of the votes + 1 vote.

If no one gets enough votes, next weekend, once again, an election will be held only between the two candidates with the most votes. (ILKHA)