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Two Iranian presidential candidates withdrew their candidacies this week as voters in Iran head to the polls this Friday to pick the country’s next president following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, Al Jazeera reported.

On Thursday, hardline contender Alireza Zakani, the mayor of the capital Tehran, announced his withdrawal from the race, a day after another candidate, Vice President Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, dropped his bid to run in the early polls.

Hashemi also the other conservative contenders to unite “so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened,” while Zakani called on them to stop reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian from winning the June 28 polls, according to Radio Free Europe.

Currently, only four candidates remain that will contest Friday’s polls comes a little more than a month after the death of hardliner Raisi and other senior Iranian officials.

The conservative camp consists of former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. Observers noted that there were expectations that one of them would withdraw in order to back the other, with supporters warning of a split conservative vote if there is no consensus.

Meanwhile, Pezeshkian has received support from pro-reformist parties and moderates, including former President Hassan Rouhani – who is remembered for the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Another surprising candidate is cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who has been accused as a “notorious human rights violator” by the US State Department over his role in the 1988 mass execution of several thousand political prisoners at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, the Associated Press noted.

Even so, the conservative Pourmohammadi has befuddled many in Iran for proposing a series of reformist ideas, including pledges to end the country’s morality police and calling for negotiations with the United States, according to the Middle East Eye.

Still, opinion polls show Pezeshkian performing better than his conservative rivals, but that his success will depend on voter turnout.

Previous Iranian presidential elections saw low voter participation, prompting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to call for a “maximum” turnout in the June 28 polls.