Former Iranian President Ahmadinejad will run for president, state television says

(CNN) — Iran’s former hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has filed to run for president in the country’s June 28 election, held after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, Iran state television reported on Sunday.

They could, however, knock him out of the race: The country’s Guardian Council, led by clerics, will vet candidates and publish a list of those qualified on June 11.

Ahmadinejad, a former member of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, was first elected president of Iran in 2005 and resigned in 2013 due to term limits.

The Guardian Council banned him from running in the 2017 elections, a year after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned him that participating was “not in his or the country’s interest.”

A rift developed between the two after Ahmadinejad explicitly advocated for Khamenei’s control over ultimate authority.

In 2018, in a rare criticism of Khamenei, Ahmadinejad wrote to him demanding “free” elections.

Khamenei supported Ahmadinejad’s re-election in 2009, sparking protests that left dozens dead and hundreds arrested, shaking the ruling theocracy, before security forces led by the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) crushed the riots.