Two candidates drop out of Iran presidential election, due to take place Friday amid voter apathy

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two candidates in Iran's presidential election withdrew from the race as the country prepared Thursday for the upcoming vote, an effort by hard-liners to coalesce around a unity candidate in the polls to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi.

Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, 53, dropped his candidacy and urged other candidates to do the same “so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported late Wednesday night.

Ghazizadeh Hashemi served as one of Raisi’s vice presidents and as the head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. He ran in the 2021 presidential election and received some 1 million votes, coming in last place.

On Thursday, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani also withdrew, as he did previously in the 2021 election in which Raisi was voted into office.

Zakani said he withdrew to “block the formation of a third administration” of former President Hassan Rouhani, a reference to reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian. Pezeshkian is running with the support of former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who under Rouhani reached the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Such withdrawals are common in the final hours of an Iranian presidential election, particularly in the last 24 hours before the vote is held when campaigns enter a mandatory quiet period without rallies. Voters go to the polls Friday.

The two withdrawals leave four other candidates still in the race. Analysts broadly see the race as a three-way contest.

Two hard-liners, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, are fighting over the same bloc, experts say. Then there's Pezeshkian, a cardiac surgeon who has sought to associate himself with Rouhani and other reformist figures like former President Mohammad Khatami and those who led the 2009 Green Movement protest.

Iran’s theocracy under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has maintained its stance of not approving women or anyone urging radical change to the country’s government for the ballot. However, Khamenei in recent days has called for a “maximum” turnout in the vote, while also issuing a veiling warning to Pezeshkian and his allies about relying on the United States.

Widespread public apathy has descended in the Iranian capital over the election, coming after a May helicopter crash that killed Raisi.

After the promise nearly a decade ago of Tehran’s nuclear deal opening up Iran to the rest of the world, Iranians broadly face crushing economic conditions and a far more uncertain Middle East that already has seen the Islamic Republic directly attack Israel for the first time. Iran also now enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and has enough of it to produce several nuclear weapons if it choses.

The limited options in the election, as well as widespread discontent over Iran's ongoing crackdown on women over the mandatory headscarf, has some saying they won't vote.

“I did not watch any of the debates since I have no plan to vote,” said Fatemeh Jazayeri, a 27-year-old unemployed woman with a master’s degree. “I voted for Rouhani seven years ago, but he failed to deliver his promises for a better economy. Any promise by any candidates will remain on paper only.”

Worshippers in Tehran at Friday prayers in recent weeks, typically more conservative than others in the city, appeared more willing to vote.

Ma0hmoud Seyedi, a 46-year-old shopkeeper, said he and his wife, alongside two young daughters, will vote,

“My wife and I have decided to vote for Qalibaf since he knows how to solve problems of the country because years of experience but my daughters are thinking about Jalili, too,” he said. “By the way, voting is a duty for us.”

Parivash Emami, 49, another at prayers, said she hoped his vote could help Iran overcome its problems.

“Qalibaf knows details of problems, the rest are either critics or promise to solve problems without offering any program,” Emami said.

Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran.

In this picture made available by Iranian state-run TV, IRIB, presidential candidate for the June 28 election Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Vice President of late Ebrahim Raisi, speaks in a debate of the candidates at the TV studio in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (Morteza Fakhri Nezhad/IRIB via AP)

In this photo released by the Iranian state-run TV, IRIB, presidential candidate for June 28 election Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Vice President of late Ebrahim Raisi, attends a debate of the candidates at the TV studio in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (Morteza Fakhri Nezhad/IRIB via AP)

Reformist candidate for Iran's June 28, presidential election Masoud Pezeshkian flashes the victory sign in his campaign rally in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the most prominent hard-line candidate for the June 28 presidential election, speaks in his campaign gathering in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Qalibaf along with five other candidates is competing in the election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash with seven other officials in May. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A supporter of Saeed Jalili, a candidate for the June 28, presidential election, holds up his poster during a campaign gathering in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Jalili, a hardline candidate and former nuclear negotiator, said in a debate on Monday: "We should make the enemy regretful from sanctioning Iran through economic means." (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — About 15,000 people attended the annual EuroPride parade Saturday, police said, in support of the LGBTQ+ community in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki amid a heavy police presence.

The parade, whose motto is “Persevere, Progress, Prosper,” was staged on the ninth and last day of a series of events across the city. It was to be followed later Saturday by a concert and a series of parties.

“This participation from across Europe sends a message,” parade participant Michalis Filippidis told the Associated Press. “It is very very good. We are all united like a fist and, despite many things happening, we are all here to fight for our rights."

Participants marched through the city center, ending up at the city’s waterfront, at the statue of Alexander the Great, the most famous ruler of the ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedonia. The nearby White Tower, once part of the city’s fortifications but now a standalone monument, emblematic of the city, was dressed in the colors of the rainbow.

There was a heavy police presence to prevent counterdemonstrations. In the end, police said, 15 people were detained for shouting obscenities at parade participants and, in one case, trying to throw eggs at them. Police prevented them from getting too close to parade participants.

Some Greek participants in the parade chanted at the counterdemonstrators: “For every racist and homophobe, there is a place in Thermaikos,” the gulf on whose shores the city is built.

A 34-year-old man who had called for an anti-gay demonstration, despite the police’s ban on such an action, was arrested and will appear in court Monday on charges of inciting disobedience and disturbing the peace. He was visited in prison by the head of Niki, an ultra-religious political party, one of three far-right parties that elected representatives to the European Parliament in elections earlier in June.

Nationalism and religious fervor are more pronounced in Thessaloniki and other northern Greek areas than the rest of the country. The far right’s strong showing in elections was in part due to passage earlier in the year of a law legalizing same-sex marriage. The law, strongly backed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was opposed by nearly a third of the lawmakers from his conservative New Democracy party, and was backed by much of the left opposition, with the exception of the Communists, who voted against.

The EuroPride parade had strong official backing. The city was a co-sponsor and several foreign ambassadors attended.

“I am proud to be here ... for EuroPride 2024,” said U.S. Ambassador to Greece George Tsunis. “This is about human dignity, this is about acceptance, this is about love, this is about equality. And, frankly, we need more love, more acceptance, more kindness in this world.”

“I am here to show our support for diversity and equality for all. You are who you are and you can love who you love,” said Dutch Ambassador to Greece Susanna Terstal.

“I welcome the ambassadors ... and all the participants to Thessaloniki, a multicolored, friendly city that considers human rights non-negotiable,” said Mayor Stelios Angeloudis.

Next year's EuroPride will take place in Lisbon.

Associated Press writer Demetris Nellas contributed to this report from Athens. Greece

Revellers take part in EuroPride, a pan-European international LGBTI event featuring a Pride parade which is hosted in a different European city each year, in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Revellers take part in EuroPride, a pan-European international LGBTI event featuring a Pride parade which is hosted in a different European city each year, in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A reveller takes part in EuroPride, a pan-European international LGBTI event featuring a Pride parade which is hosted in a different European city each year, in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A reveller takes part in EuroPride, a pan-European international LGBTI event featuring a Pride parade which is hosted in a different European city each year, in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A reveller takes part in EuroPride, a pan-European international LGBTI event featuring a Pride parade which is hosted in a different European city each year, in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Revellers gather in front of the White Tower during EuroPride, a pan-European international LGBTI event featuring a Pride parade which is hosted in a different European city each year, in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A reveller takes part in EuroPride, a pan-European international LGBTI event featuring a Pride parade which is hosted in a different European city each year, in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Revellers take part in EuroPride, a pan-European international LGBTI event featuring a Pride parade which is hosted in a different European city each year, in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

Revellers gather in front of the White Tower during EuroPride, a pan-European international LGBTI event featuring a Pride parade which is hosted in a different European city each year, in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)