Rouhani said he asked Khamenei for utmost greater “competition” in the election.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday he had asked Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to make sure greater “competition” within the June elections after many prominent hopefuls were barred from running.

“The heart of elections is competition. If you’re taking that away it becomes a corpse,” Rouhani said at a televised cabinet meeting, adding that “I sent a letter to the supreme leader yesterday on what I had in mind and on whether he can help with this.”

Only seven candidates are approved by the country’s constitutional watchdog to run president, drastically narrowing the sector of hopefuls for who will replace Rouhani.

On Tuesday, state TV quoted Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman of the Guardian Council, as saying “only seven” had been approved out of some 590 who registered by the panel of clerics and jurists overseen by Khamenei.

The elections come as Iran is engaged in talks with world powers aimed toward reviving a nuclear deal that has been on life support since former US president Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from it in 2018.