Azernews.Az

First Deputy Speaker of Iran's Parliament Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi Fard has withdrawn his candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections in Iran, Mehr news agency reported.

Aboutorabi Fard reportedly received a letter signed by some 200 MPs of Iranian parliament, which said the members wanted him to work in Iran's parliament.

Fard thanked the MPs, and expressed will to be selected as the vice speaker of the parliament. After making the statement, he officially withdrew his presidential candidacy.

Aboutorabi Fard, along with Manouchehr Mottaki, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, and Yahya Al-e Es'haq comprised the Coalition of Five at the presidential elections. Currently, Mottaki is the only active presidential hopeful of the coalition.

It should be noted that the coalition selected Aboutorabi Fard as their candidate, skipping Mottaki, who later went on to register for the elections independently, despite being coalition's founder.

Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on May 19 that the ministry will announced the names of the presidential candidates on May 21, after it receives the final list from the Guardian Council.

Najjar also noted that during the two-day period, the ministry will hold meetings with the approved candidates to discuss their election campaigns.

The campaigning period for Iran's presidential elections will end a day before the polls open. There will be 66,000 polling stations open for the upcoming election.

Iran will hold the 11th presidential election on June 14.

The voters will select the successor of the current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is not able to participate in the elections for the third term according to the country's constitutional laws.

The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term in a national election and the Guardian Council vets the candidates for qualifications.

Meanwhile, the spokesman of the Guardian Council Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaee says the council will act independently in accepting or rejecting any of the presidential hopefuls, ISNA news agency reported.

Referring to a petition by 100 members of the parliament for rejecting eligibility of ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former presidential aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, he said everyone can express views about eligibility of candidates, but the Council will not pay attention to the public's views and will act independently.

"If a person's beliefs are not in line with principles of the Islamic Republic, he or she will be rejected by the Council," he noted.

A number of principlists have called for rejecting Rafsanjani because "he is old and is not able to run the national affairs efficiently."