TWO CANDIDATES in Iran’s presidential election withdrew from the race as the country prepared today for the upcoming vote, an effort by hard-liners to coalesce around a unity candidate in the polls to replace the late president Ebrahim Raisi.

Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, 53, dropped his candidacy and urged other candidates to do the same “so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported late on Wednesday night.

Mr Ghazizadeh Hashemi served as one of Mr Raisi’s vice-presidents and as the head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. He ran in the 2021 presidential election and received about a million votes, coming in last place.