Iran’s electoral watchdog has barred former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and a close aide to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running in the June 14 presidential election, state media has reported.

Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei were disqualified by the Guardian Council which approved a list of eight candidates announced by the interior ministry late on Tuesday, Fars news agency reported.

There have been wide speculations that Mashaei would be excluded from the list. But not Rafsanjani, a two-term president and current head of the Expediency Council, a position appointed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader.

Their exclusion from the June 14 presidential ballot gives establishment-friendly candidates a clear path to succeed Ahmadinejad, who has lost favour with the ruling clerics after years of power struggles.

It also pushes moderate and opposition voices further to the margins as Iran’s leadership faces critical challenges such as international sanctions and talks with world powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

International political analyst Alireza Nader told Al Jazeera that the move would further frustrate the Iranian people.

“Rafsanjani was disqualified because Ayatollah Khamenei the supreme leader sees him as a challenge and so he does not want anybody of his standing to run in the election,” he said.

“Khamenei wants to make sure that, yes, there are some candidates but they follow his line and don’t really challenge his domestic and foreign policy agenda.

“The Iranian regime is basically telling the Iranian people that their vote doesn’t matter, that Ayatollah Khamenei derives his power from God and that he really, in a lot of ways, should be Iran’s absolute ruler.”

Time for appeals

Rafsanjani or Mashaei did not immediately comment on the decision.

The official ballot list, announced on state TV, followed a nearly six-hour delay in which the names were kept under wraps.

That raised speculation that authorities allowed some time for appeals by the blackballed candidates and their backers to Khamenei, who has final say in all matters.

Other candidates who were approved were Hassan Rowhani, a close Rafsanjani ally, and Ali-Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister.

Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, the mayor of Tehran since 2005, is also included in the list, as well as Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, the former speaker of parliament, and Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who came third in the 2009 presidential election.

Stanford University graduate and former vice president for Khatami, Mohammed Reza Aref, is the only reformist running in the election.

Female candidates excluded

On Thursday last week, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of election watchdog, said women cannot be presidential candidates, effectively killing the largely symbolic bids by about 30 women seeking the presidency.

Yazdi said that the “law does not approve” of a woman in the presidency and a woman on the ballot is “not allowed”.

A total of 686 people had registered to replace Ahmadinejad, who cannot run for a third mandate because of term limits.

Any of the choices would create a possibly seamless front between the ruling clerics and presidency after years of political turmoil under Ahmadinejad, who tried to challenge the theocracy’s vast powers to make all major decisions and set key policies.

Iran’s presidency, meanwhile, is expected to convey the ruling clerics’ views on the world stage and not set its own diplomatic agenda.

While the election is not expected to bring major shifts in Iran’s position on its nuclear programme – which Tehran insists is peaceful despite Western fears it could lead to atomic weapons – it could open opportunities to renew stalled talks with a six-nation group that includes the US.

On Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said Iran’s nuclear stance will “not change either before or after the election”.