TEHRAN, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian election officials approved on Wednesday four candidates for the June 12 presidential polls, national media reported.
Among the contenders named by the Guardian Council are President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ex-premier Mir-Hossein Mousavi, ex-parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karoubi and the former head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezai.
The Guardian Council, the Islamic Republic's constitutional watchdog, reports directly to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This will be the 10th presidential election in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Ahmadinejad, 52, was elected president in 2005. He is seeking a second four-year term in office.
Reformist candidates Karroubi and Mousavi are seen as Ahmadinejad's main challengers. They have called for more diplomacy in relations with the West, strained over Iran's nuclear program.
The four were chosen out of 450 hopefuls, 42 of them women. If no one receives over 50% of the vote in the June elections, there will be a runoff between the first and second placed candidates.
