Mohsen Mehralizadeh

Mohsen Mehralizadeh (Persian: محسن مهرعلیزاده‎; born September 30, 1956) is an Iranian reformist politician and former Governor of Isfahan Province. He was a Vice President of Iran and the head of the National Sports Organization of Iran under President Khatami. He is an ethnic Azerbaijani.

Mehralizadeh was the governor of the Khorasan in Khatami's first term of presidency.

Presidential candidature

During the campaign for 2005 presidential election, Mehralizadeh announced his ambition for presidency on December 29 and said he was the candidate for the younger generation. He received some support from Majlis representatives of Guilan, Azerbaijan and Khorasan. On May 22, 2005, the Guardian Council rejected Mehralizadeh and Mostafa Moeen's candidacy, but the next day they approved both reformist candidates after the controversial letter of Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, who specifically asked for their approval.

Mehralizadeh ranked last in the seven candidates running on June 17, 2005, securing about 1,300,000 votes (4.40%), a record number and percentage for a last finishing presidential candidate in Iran. He ranked first in the all of the three provinces of the Iranian Azerbaijan.