Tehran -- The registration process began at the country’s Election Office, which is located within the Interior Ministry’s premises in Tehran, on Tuesday, and will last for the next five day.

The election is scheduled for May 19.

The candidates are expected to be political and religious personages who fulfill the fourfold criteria of being of Iranian origin, being a national of the Islamic Republic, being prudent and capable of taking on leadership duties, and being religious and believing in the Islamic Republic’s principles and its official religion.

All hopefuls will be vetted by the Guardian Council, which will announce the names of qualified candidates possiblyin late April.

The two main rivals in the race are widely expected to be the incumbent, President Hassan Rouhani, and Ebrahim Raeesi, the chief custodian of Astan Quds Razavi, the organization managing the affairs of the holy shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam, in the city of Mashhad.