A billboard with a picture of the presidential candidates is displayed on a street in Tehran, Iran, June 17, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Two hardline candidates dropped out of Iran‘s presidential election on Thursday, a day ahead of the landmark vote, and called for unity among forces supporting the country’s Islamic revolution, state media reported.

Iranian’s tightly controlled election on Friday follows Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash last month, with the outcome expected to influence the succession to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the top decision-maker in the clerically-ruled state.

Tehran’s mayor Alireza Zakani and head of the Martyrs’ Foundation Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi exited the race, state media said. They were expected to win just 1.7 percent and 2 percent of votes respectively according to a June 22-23 poll carried out by the Iran Students Polling Center.

Their departure leaves four presidential candidates and Zakani urged the two most prominent hardline ones to join forces to prevent moderate Masoud Pezeshkian from winning.

“I call upon Saeed Jalili and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf to unite and not leave the demands of the revolutionary forces unanswered,” Zakani wrote on X, referring to the former nuclear negotiator and his hardline rival, parliament speaker and former head of the powerful Revolutionary Guards.

Khamenei, now 85, has ensured candidates sharing his hardline views dominate the presidential contest. Iran‘s president is traditionally closely involved in the process of choosing the supreme leader.

The elections are taking place at a sensitive time. Tensions with Israel are escalating over the Gaza conflict, the West is pressuring Tehran to scale back its nuclear plans, and domestic dissent is growing over political, social, and economic crises.

Pezeshkian, a former health minister, has the endorsement of Iran‘s politically-sidelined reformist camp that advocates detente with the West, but his chances are unclear, with dissidents in and outside Iran calling for an election boycott.