Iranians are set to go to the polls to cast their ballots in an upcoming vote to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi. Associated Press news director Jon Gambrell explains how Iran’s foreign policy could be affected by the election this Friday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two candidates in Iran’s presidential election withdrew from the race as the country on Thursday prepared 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 negotiated and eventually struck the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The deal later collapsed and Iran has since stepped up enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.

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.