Hundreds of candidates are vying to become Iran 's next president , with hopefuls ranging from friends to foes of current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . A total of 686 candidates have registered for the June election , Iran 's state-run Press TV reported . Ahmadinejad is term-limited and can not run for a third straight term . But other big names are in the mix , including Ahmadinejad 's top aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei and former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani . Ahmadinejad has been grooming Mashaei to take over for years , and the two are like-minded in their nationalism and shared disdain for the clerical establishment , according to Geneive Abdo , a fellow at the Stimson Center 's Middle East Program and a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution . But the Guardian Council , which is controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , vets candidates and decides who is allowed to run for president , Abdo said . She said the council is not expected to allow anyone from the so-called `` deviant faction '' of Ahmadinejad 's supporters to run . Rafsanjani , on the other hand , has long been a staunch critic and bitter political rival of Ahmadinejad 's . He served two terms as president from 1989 to 1997 . Weeks after the 2009 elections , Rafsanjani condemned the regime 's violent crackdown against the opposition movement and spoke out for the people 's right to peacefully protest . He later toned down the attacks and made statements of apparent support of the regime and the supreme leader , Khamenei .
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is term-limited and ca n't run again . His top aide is one of the candidates . Ex-president and Ahmadinejad critic Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani also registered to run . The Guardian Council vets candidates and decides who can run .