The head of popular justice is opposed to the reformists in the Iranian presidential election

Iranian Justice Chief Ebrahim Raisi has announced that he will run in the June 18 presidential election.

Condemned for his involvement in the mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s, Raisi has once again said that he is a populist, campaigning against corruption, talking to ordinary people about court cases and traveling to pandemic-charged provinces.

Raisi is considered the leading candidate, but pro-reform politicians will challenge him on the list to be examined by the Guardian Council, a staunch guardian of the Constitution.

Ahead of the official registration in the Interior Ministry on Saturday, the 60-year-old clergyman said the changes in the country’s increase have not helped him achieve the goal of making Iran a strong nation.

“The election result should be a real development to bring hope and excitement to the society,” he said. “In the near future, bitter feelings of injustice. . . it will become a sweet and desirable taste of the realization of justice. ”

President Hassan Rouhani, a centrist politician who pledged to agree on a 2015 world nuclear deal with world powers, will step down this summer after two terms in office.

Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the nuclear deal in 2018 and impose harsh sanctions on Iran was a major blow to Rouhani and his candidacy backed by pro-reform forces.

Reformers must win the support of Iranians who sided with Rouhani in their 2017 victory over Raisi, but have said they will never vote again to protest US sanctions and economic hardship caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Many Iranians believe that having a tougher president like Raisi would make no real difference because politicians for and against reforms are the same.

First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri is the main reformist candidate. He acknowledged on Saturday that public confidence in government institutions had diminished and that many people no longer believed their votes could make a difference.

He warned Iranians that the country’s situation was worrying and could be worse if it remained passive.

“I understand that many of the people are angry about the bad governance and have no hope in the elections,” he said. “We have no choice but to revive the polls.”

As a member of the outgoing government of Jahangiri, many Iranians have a responsibility, as well as business figures, for their suffering and Rouhani’s poor economic history.

Ali Larijani, a 63-year-old centrist politician and former parliamentary speaker, is the other main candidate who signed up on Saturday morning. He is best known internationally as Iran’s former nuclear negotiator.

Larijani sided with the Iranian president in previous nuclear negotiations and played a key role in the legislature. Opposing hard forces, Rouhani was given the opportunity to reach an agreement with the world powers.

The biggest challenge in the election is the expected low turnout, which would be seen as a rejection by the Islamic republic.

Iran’s top leader Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that his first priority was high turnout, “which would help increase the country’s deterrent power, give him security and credibility.”

Raisi, who believes he is backed by elite Revolutionary Guards, may benefit from a boycott of reforms because he calls on lower-middle-class Iranians who tend to vote in every election and usually side with populist politicians.

It is close to the supreme leader and is identified with the focus on promoting domestic production rather than better international judicial officers.

Raisi, however, backed the nuclear talks in Vienna and said he would pursue “smart and innovative diplomacy” and that if elected, he would “not waste a single second to get rid of cruel sanctions.”

The Guardian Council will announce the names of those authorized to run in the election before the three-week campaign, which begins on May 28th.

Dozens of politicians and the military have signed up. Most are expected to be banned.

The list includes former political prisoner Mostafa Tajzadeh, who has broken social and political taboos by ending the forced Islamic coverage of women and challenged the absolute authority of the supreme leader.

Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s tough president, remains well-known among the poor, but has fallen through the regime’s fault and registered his candidacy on Wednesday. He said he would not vote for any candidate if he were banned from running as a candidate, which could weaken support for Raisi among the poorest segments of society.

Larijani said on Saturday that “the economic area is not a garrison, nor a court to manage through orders,” clearly aimed at members of the guards and the campaign against Raisi and her corruption. “It’s naive to think that a couple of populist movements can help fix it [Iran’s] problems “.