TEHRAN — A council that vets Iran’s political candidates has disqualified former two-term president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with hundreds of others, from the presidential election next month.

No official reason was given for the disqualifications in the May 19 election, which were announced on state television Thursday night by an election official, Ali Asghar Ahmadi.

While Ahmadinejad’s disqualification was not unexpected, the timing of the announcement — just around midnight, two days before what had been the scheduled unveiling of the final list of candidates — was unusual.