Ahead of presidential vote, Iran's Parliament re-elects former Revolutionary Guards Commander as Speaker

Legislators of the new Iranian parliament have reinstated former Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf as parliament Speaker, state media reported. Qalibaf was elected to the post in the first session of the 12th term of the Islamic Consultative Assembly held at the parliament building in Tehran today.

Qalibaf was elected as the speaker of the parliament with 198 votes out of 287, IRNA reported Mojtaba Zolnouri, and Manouchehr Mottaki were others who contested for the post.

Zolnouri got 60 votes followed by Mottaki with only 5 votes. and there were also 24 invalid votes. The 2024 legislative elections were held in Iran in two rounds on March 1 and May 10.

Ghalibaf's name was being mentioned as a possible candidate for the snap presidential election scheduled for June 28 to choose a successor to Ebrahim Raisi. The presidential election was necessitated following the death of Raisi, the eighth president of Iran who died in a helicopter crash on May 19. Raisi and his companions, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian were killed after the helicopter carrying them crashed in the Varzaqan region in northwestern Iranian province of East Azerbaijan.

Raisi was buried at the shrine of Imam Reza (AS) - the eighth Imam of Shia Muslims - in northeast Iran last Thursday. (ANI)

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