Presidential candidates begin final TV showdown ahead of Iran election

The seven aspirants started the showdown at 17:00 local time (1230 GMT) at the headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIB) later on Saturday.

The website of Iran’s Press TV news network is offering live updates and live coverage of the event on its election page.

The previous two debates were themed on “economy” and “politics, culture and society.” The candidates, however, did not fully concentrate on the subjects and used much of their time to trade blame and attack one another.

During the second face-off, most of the candidates criticized the style of the debate and the generality of the questions that they had to answer in 3-5 minutes.

It remains to see if there will be any change to the style of the third one.

Iran is holding its 13^th presidential election on June 18. Out of the seven contenders, five are associated with the Principlist camp, while the other two are affiliated with the Reformists.

Over 59 million Iranians are estimated to be eligible to vote, according to the figures released by election officials. More than 72, 000 polling states, including mobile ones, will be set up across the country, with the polls slated to be open from 7:00 a.m. to 00:00 a.m. local time.