Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi Wednesday criticized some foreign media for focusing on a single candidate during their coverage of Iran's ninth presidential elections, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Certain governments including the United States have wrong approach toward Iran and they are following their own agenda in connection with the presidential election. They will get their response from the great nation on Friday," Kharazi was quoted as saying.

Describing the focusing on certain single candidate as "a ploy to overshadow Iranian public opinion and people's magnificent turnout", he stressed that "people are the ultimate decision makers" in the elections.

Iran is to hold polling of the presidential elections on Friday. Eight candidates have been approved to stand in the race, among them are former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former Higher Education Minister Mostafa Moin and former police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

The above-mentioned three are the seeds of Friday's elections according to some recent polls.

Tehran has set a deadline of 9 am (04:00 GMT) Thursday for election campaigns, and nobody will be authorized to continue campaign after the deadline.

Meanwhile, Mohsen Rezai, former head of the Revolutionary Guards and a draggling candidate, announced his withdrawal on the threshold of the elections "in order to avoid the diversity of votes," according to the state television.

Source: Xinhua