Dozens of candidates, but few political differences in Iran’s presidential poll

Official registration of candidates for Iran’s June presidential election will start in May, but the unofficial contest has already begun. By April, more than a dozen political figures had openly started putting together their election staff, and another 10 to 15 could potentially join them. But the large number of candidates belies the flattening of the political landscape since the civil unrest in 2009 and subsequent political repression, and reflects divisions within the conservative camp, rather than competing ideologies. “Some political parties will probably be compelled to nominate more than one candidate in order to satisfy the interests of all members,” one political source in Iran said.