Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated he will not endorse anyone or interfere in the election to choose his successor,[2] however he announced he will support Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei if he will be confirmed, two other cabinet members, Mohammad-Reza Rahimi and Sadeq Khalilian are also registered without the support of Ahmadinejad: The following three candidates also known as 2+1 formed a coalition between themselves that one of the three will register for the election and the remaining two will support him, however all of those registered and the main candidate will be announced in a later which it is possible that all will be enter to the elections.
For the following election, their main candidates are among Kamran Bagheri Lankarani, Saeed Jalili and Parviz Fattah.
On May 9 after selection of Aboutorabi Fard was announced, Mottaki declared he will not accept this selection and will run separately:[6] The main candidate was elected by a majority vote of the congress on 10 May 2013: Despite being associated with the CCA, Hassan Rouhani was not supported by the party as he progressed in the election.
Rouhani had gained heavy reformist support throughout his election campaign, with himself being a centrist moderate with ties to the conservative faction.
[citation needed] After Mohammad-Ali Najafi announced he will not register for the election, the party announced their support for Hassan Rouhani after their candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was disqualified: Mohammad Khatami was considered to be a very popular frontrunner with a lot of support in the election, but he was eventually disqualified, the party then announced their support for Hassan Rouhani: Mohammad-Reza Aref eventually became the sole reformist in the final confirmed group of candidates in the election.