ANKARA (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani registered on Friday to run for a second four-year term, state television said, buoyed by Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers though facing a hardline conservative challenge over his economic record. He won the election by a landslide in 2013 on a platform of ending the Islamic Republic's diplomatic isolation and creating a freer society, but faces a stiff challenge from conservative hardliners because of discontent over the economy. Influential Shi'ite cleric Ebrahim Raisi, the custodian of a powerful organisation in charge of Iran´s holiest shrine, appears to be the leading hardline candidate in the presidential race, though some prominent conservatives have already thrown their weight behind Rouhani. Also on Friday Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line cleric close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had earlier announced plans to run promising to fight poverty and corruption, registered to run in the presidential elections. Earlier this month Ebrahim Raisi announced his readiness in a statement in which he said the country is suffering from “structural chronic illness and incorrect managerial traditions.”

In 2016, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Raisi as head of the Imam Reza charity foundation, which owns a massive business conglomerate and endowments in Iran.
President Hassan Rouhani seeks for a second term while one of his main rivals Ebrahim Raisi also registers with just one day remaining for the submission.