Background
The Iranian voters cast their votes in the 13th presidential election on June 18, 2021, and elected Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi as the new president of Iran. A number of leaders have served as the highest elected official in Iran subsequent to Abolhasan Banisadr, who was elected as the first president following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy. After Banisadr, who had to flee abroad following a disagreement with the Islamic Republican Party and then Ayatollah Khomeini, Mohammad Ali Rajaei served as the second president of the Islamic Republic for a brief period, and following his assassination; Ali Khamenei, Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hassan Rouhani were respectively elected as the ‘second-highest-ranking official’ in Iran.