Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will run for office again in upcoming elections in June, state television has reported.

Broadcast footage showed Mr Ahmadinejad marching alongside supporters to a registration centre at the interior ministry where he filled out forms.

In recent years, Mr Ahmadinejad has tried to polish his hardline image into a more centrist candidacy.

The Holocaust-denying former leader was previously banned from running for the presidency by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2017 – although he registered anyway.

Mr Khamenei said he will not oppose the nomination of any candidate, although the electoral council may still block Mr Ahmadinejad from running.

In either case, the populist’s return to the political scene may energise discontent among hardliners who seek a tougher stance against the West – particularly Israel and the US.

Iran opened election registration on Tuesday, kicking off the race as uncertainty looms over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers, and tensions remain high with the west.

President Hassan Rouhani cannot run again due to term limits, yet with the poll just a month away, no immediate favourite has emerged among the many rumoured candidates.

There also appears to be little interest in the vote by a public crushed by sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic.

Nevertheless, many view the country’s hardliners as rising in power – even as the US under President Joe Biden tries to find a way to re-enter the atomic accord.

Whoever wins the 18 June vote will take over from Mr Rouhani, a relative moderate within the Islamic Republic whose two four-year terms began with Iran reaching the nuclear deal.

His time in office now draws to a close with the accord unravelled after the US unilaterally withdrew from it under former president Donald Trump in 2018.

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