Iran's hastily organized June 28 presidential election in the wake of President Ebrahim Raisi's death in a May 19 helicopter crash will be tightly managed and orchestrated by Iran's Guardian Council, which is tasked with vetting and approving presidential candidates. In recent years, the Guardian Council has increasingly rejected reformist, moderate and even many traditional conservative candidates in an effort to steer Iran's elections in the favor of the country's hard-line conservatives, most recently to clear the path for Raisi to assume power by breaking down opposition to him as president. With Raisi dead, the Guardian Council's approval process, which will culminate with the announcement of the candidates for the election on June 11, will be under increased scrutiny, as there is no clear hard-line frontrunner to replace him....
