686 candidates register in presidential election

(MNA) – At the end of last day of registration, 686 candidates entered in the race for 11th presidential elections.

Iran Interior Minister announced that at the end of the fifth day of registration, 686 candidates had entered the race for the presidential elections.

In his press conference about the number of applicants entering the presidential race, Mostafa Mohammad Najar, announced that “75 candidates registered in the first day of the elections, 69 people on the second day, on the third day 99 people, and on the fourth day 123 people registered. In total of 686 candidates registered for the 11th presidential election.”

“Of these, 539 were married and 147 single, the youngest candidate was 19 years old and the oldest was 87 years old, with the gender distribution of 96 per cent male and 4 per cent female,” he added.

Najar said: “89 candidates or 13 per cent have PhD, 153 candidates, or 22 per cent have graduate degree, 212 of them or 31 per cent have undergraduate degree, 4 candidates or 1 per cent have seminary education, 52 candidates or 8 per cent have associate degrees, 116 or 10 per cent of them have high school diploma, and 60 of the candidates have not finished high school.”

Interior Minister said: “25 of the candidates have medical degree, 20 were lawyers, 45 teachers, 51 of them were university lecturer, 3 MPs, 14 clergymen, 94 candidates retired, 181 are office workers, 198 businessman and 55 of the candidates are students or unemployed.

He pointed out that screening the presidential candidates by the Guardian Council will last 5 days, however, this deadline may be extended for up to 5 days. After completion of vetting process, and announcing the final presidential candidates, the election campaign will begin, and will continue up to 24 hours before Election Day, June 14 2013.