Ahmadinejad rejected: Iran allows 6 presidential candidates – and rejects 74

Ahmadinejad rejected
Iran allows 6 presidential candidates – and rejects 74

09.06.2024, 16:29

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After the death of President Raisi, a successor must be elected in Iran. The powerful Guardian Council has now approved a list of candidates. Moderates and reformers had no chance. The interim president did not run. In the end, not surprisingly, almost only hardliners are on the ballot.

In Iran, the powerful Guardian Council has excluded a large majority of candidates from the presidential election. This means that a total of six candidates will be running on June 28, as a spokesman for the electoral authority announced on state television. A total of 74 Iranian men and four Iranian women had applied for the election.

The following candidates are now eligible:

• Said Jalili, hardliner and former chief negotiator in the nuclear talks. The 58-year-old is considered a promising candidate from the ultra-conservative camp. He is currently a member of the Expediency Council, a body appointed by religious leader Ali Khamenei.
• Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, current parliamentary speaker and former general of the influential Revolutionary Guard. The 62-year-old Ghalibaf had already run unsuccessfully twice in a presidential election in the past.
• Amirhussein Ghasisadeh Hashemi, hardliner and chairman of the Foundation for Martyrs and Veterans. He is 53.
• Massoud Peseschkian, moderate candidate and former Minister of Health (2001-2005) under the presidency of Mohammed Khamati. The 69-year-old is known for his outspokenness. He had denounced the authorities’ lack of transparency in the Mahsa Amini case.
• Mostafa Purmohammadi, Islamic scholar, former Minister of the Interior and Justice. In his role as Deputy Minister of Intelligence, the now 64-year-old is said to have played a role in the mass executions in the 1980s.
• Aliresa Sakani, hardliner and current mayor of Tehran. He is 58.

Among those rejected were the controversial former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He had already been barred from running again in the presidential election in 2017 and 2021. Ahmadinejad served two terms in office from 2005 to 2013. The conservative former parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, who was considered the dark horse, was also eliminated. Wahid Haghanian, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards who was subject to US sanctions, also failed. Moderate politicians and candidates from the reform camp were also left behind. Iran’s interim president, Mohammed Mokhber, was also considered a promising candidate, but did not even register for the election.

Before the previous parliamentary election in 2021, the Guardian Council had approved seven candidates and also excluded numerous moderate politicians and reformers. Ultimately, the ultra-conservative cleric Raisi won the election. At 48.8 percent, voter turnout was the lowest since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.

The new election follows the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19. In Iran, unlike many other countries, the president is not the head of state, but the head of government. The real power is concentrated in the religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The 85-year-old also exerts decisive influence on the Guardian Council. As a result, citizens can only choose from a circle of candidates loyal to the system.

The so-called Guardian Council is made up of twelve Islamic clerics and jurists, half of whom are elected by parliament and half appointed by Khamenei. The council decides on the constitutionality of laws and also on the qualifications of candidates in elections. Because of its prominent role in the political system, the council has been criticized in the past as an undemocratic body. The 97-year-old Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati is the chairman of the council.

Many people in Iran are disillusioned by political repression, an economic crisis and failed attempts at reform in recent decades. They have lost faith in major domestic political changes. In autumn 2022, nationwide protests against the Islamic system of rule broke out following the death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Masa Amini. Voter turnout in this year’s parliamentary election reached a record low of around 40 percent.