Millions of Iranians will head to the polls on June 14 to determine Iran's next president. As the campaign officially kicks off, RFE/RL has compiled this guide to Iran's rival factions, prominent campaign issues, and the intricacies of the Islamic republic's electoral system.

This week Iran's electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, approved the candidacies of just eight of the nearly 700 people who applied to run in next month's presidential election. Those disqualified included two prominent nominees -- former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close ally of current President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. So what recourse, if any, do disqualified candidates have to overturn the decision?

In a new report, the global rights group Amnesty International documents abuses in 159 countries and territories that it says were "inflicted by those in power on those who stand in the way of their vested interests."

RFE/RL's Radio Farda received a flood of comments via e-mail, Facebook, telephone calls, and SMS messages from its audience in Iran that overwhelmingly express disappointment and anger at the Guardians Council's final list of candidates for Iran's June 14 presidential election.

Iran's Interior Ministry has announced the official shortlist of candidates that will be vying to succeed President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in that country's June 14 election.

Millions of Iranians will flock to the polls on June 14 to vote for a successor to President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. RFE/RL looks at the vetting process that determines the final list of presidential candidates.

The spokesman for Iran's Guardians Council -- the oversight body that vets all the country's election candidates -- has said that physically weak candidates will not be allowed to run. The comments appear to be a reference to the age of 78-year-old presidential hopeful Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is considered a challenge to Iran’s establishment.

Two starkly different accounts by one of Iran’s leading presidential hopefuls of his role in state crackdowns have emerged online. So is Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf a hard-liner or a moderate?

Pakistan's neighbors and global powers have welcomed Nawaz Sharif's victory in the country's May 11 general elections, in the hope that he will stabilize the country and change its external outlook. RFE/RL looks at Sharif's potential foreign policy moves.