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.

Today, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani also withdrew, as he did previously in the 2021 election in which Mr Raisi was voted into office.

Mr Zakani said he withdrew to “block the formation of a third administration” of former president Hassan Rouhani, a reference to reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian.

Mr Pezeshkian is running with the support of former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who under Rouhani reached the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Such withdrawals are common in the final hours of an Iranian presidential election, particularly in the last 24 hours before the vote is held when campaigns enter a mandatory quiet period without rallies. Voters go to the polls tomorrow.