UPDATE - Reformist candidate withdraws from Iranian presidential election

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Mustafa Melih Ahishali

ISTANBUL (AA) – Reformist candidate Mohsen Mehralizadeh on Wednesday dropped out of the race in Iran’s forthcoming presidential election.

According to the state news agency IRNA, Mehralizadeh submitted a letter to the Interior Ministry regarding his withdrawal from the election scheduled for Friday.

According to local media reports, Mehralizadeh withdrew in favor of another reformist candidate, Abdolnasser Hemmati, who formerly served as the governor of the Central Bank of Iran.

The conservative candidates in the election race are head of judiciary Ebrahim Raisi, former senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaee, former secretary of Supreme National Security Council and nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and lawmakers Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi and Alireza Zakani.

Meanwhile, as many as 210 lawmakers from the Iranian parliament asked four conservative candidates to withdraw from the race in favor of Raisi, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

If Rezaee, Jalili, Hashemi and Zakani pull out, turnout in the election will increase, the lawmakers say.

The conservatives form a majority in the 290-member assembly.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar