Former Iranian VP Jahangiri Registers as Presidential Candidate

Some ‘reformist’ politicians have strongly criticized the registration and approval process as well as the absence of more political heavy-weights among the candidates.

In a tweet Sunday, reformist politician and former secretary general of Executives of Construction Party (Kargozaran), Gholamhossein Karbaschi, called the registration of candidates a “comic show or stand-up comedy”.

The former mayor of Tehran accused authorities of wasting the country’s time and money to prepare the public’s mind for the obliteration of the concept of elections as a pillar of democracy.

This apparently referred to the many speculations and discussions over who will eventually be allowed by the Guardian Council to run, making the presidency an ‘appointed’ rather than ‘elected’ office.

“Nice looking suit, a few slow steps, waving the birth certificate and a few camera flashes... That's it!” Saeed Hajjarian, an influential politician often referred to as the ‘theoretician of reforms’, broke his silence and tweeted Sunday.

Hajjarian criticized the registered candidates for neither proposing a “coherent plan”, nor naming their candidates for cabinet positions. “This is not politics and elections whatever its name may be!” he wrote.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Among the politically heavy weight candidates, disqualification of the populist former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who registered on Sunday is almost certain. Many believe he has “registered to be disqualified” to boost his anti-establishment image.

Hardliners and Ultra-Hardliners

Many among hardliners and ultra-hardliners who make up the majority of the registered candidates, including Zohreh Elahian, the only woman registered so far, are unlikely to be approved by the Council whose members are appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, however, has no concerns over his qualification to run. If elected, his government will most likely be a replica of Ebrahim Raisi’s over whose administration Jalili wielded much influence.

Many believe that Alireza Zakani, the mayor of Tehran, has registered to run only in a supporting role and may withdraw in Jalili’s favor, as Jalili did for Raisi in 2021, or help him against other candidates in election debates.

It remains to be seen whether Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Raisi’s minister of road and urban development, Mehrdad Bazrpash, will appear at the interior ministry on Monday, the last day of registrations.

Ali Larijani

Former moderate conservative speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani, who was barred from running in 2021 may or may not be allowed to stand. Larijani, observers say, is counting on Khamenei’s intervention to be approved.

‘Reformists’

So far four ‘reformists’ have registered to run but none has yet been declared as the candidate of the Reforms Front. ‘Reformists’ had indicated that they were willing to participate in the elections provided that the ruling establishment allows them to field their own candidates.

The umbrella reformist decision-making body has so far insisted that it will not support any candidates from outside the reformist camp like 2013 and 2017 elections in which it supported moderate conservative Hassan Rouhani.

At least one of the four reformists who have registered, namely former lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi who registered on Sunday, is unlikely to be approved.

Like Larijani, former lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian whose popularity seems to be more than the other registered reformists is believed to be counting on Khamenei’s intervention.

Former lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi, a vocal critic of Khamenei, is very unlikely to be approved.

The umbrella reformist decision-making body is to hold another meeting Sunday evening to decide its position.

Former Governor of the Central Bank and a member of the Kargozaran, Naser Hemmati, is very likely to be approved but has little chance of winning, observers say. Hemmati was approved to run against Raisi in 2012 but his bid to presidency was not supported by other reformist parties and groups.

Hemmati came third with around 2.5 million votes (8.4 percent) after Mohsen Rezaei. In the same elections, a staggering 13 percent of voters had cast void or blank ballots.

Karbaschi, a prominent figure in the centrist, pro-reform Executives of Construction Party, said, "They [the government] have turned the country's main symbol of democracy into a stand-up comedy," amid the sham elections which will ultimately nominate someone chosen by the country's Supreme Leader.

Karbaschi, a close ally of former President Mohammad Khatami, was previously arrested and imprisoned on corruption charges in a case that the New York Times described as "widely seen among moderates as a politically motivated attack" by conservatives and hard-liners. It was perceived as an effort to suppress Khatami's reformist agenda.

Echoing Karbaschi's sentiments, Saeed Hajarian, a reformist theorist, also voiced his concerns over the superficiality of the candidate registration for the upcoming presidential election. 

On X, he criticized the absence of substance behind the spectacle: "A neat suit, a few slow steps, showing the ID card, a few camera flashes... That's it! They talk neither of a coherent plan nor of the potential members of an effective cabinet."

The debacle comes in the wake of the sudden death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19, which precipitated the current snap election set for June 28. With registration ongoing since Thursday and ending Monday, nearly 90 percent of the candidates hail from the pro-regime camp.

The Guardian Council, however, had earlier disqualified him from running in the 2020 legislative elections, and is unlikely to approve him this time either.

The Council dominated by Khamenei’s conservative loyalists has barred hundreds of regime insiders from running in elections since 2020.

The field of candidates is dominated by conservatives and hardliners. 'Reformists' are still undecided about fielding a candidate, and Sadeghi would hardly be chosen as their main candidate.

Sadeghi, a former Shia cleric, wrote on Twitter in 2021, "The function of reformist and moderate governments is to get the system [regime] out of its crises, then the system will throw them away like a used handkerchief."

So far nearly two dozen politicians have registered, including several hardliners close to the Supreme Leader.

The controversial politician, who has been largely sidelined by the regime's ruling core for nearly a decade, arrived at the Interior Ministry to officially submit his credentials and register for the election.

“Today, I have come to once again greet the people of Iran,” he said as he registered his candidacy.

“The challenges we face today in all spheres are far greater than those of 2013," said the former president, pointing out that the economic hardships of the people have exhausted their patience.

Iran is grappling with soaring food prices amidst economic and social turmoil and the devaluation of the rial compounded by regional tensions. The root cause of this alarming price surge lies in Iran's faltering economy, exacerbated by the continuous devaluation of the Iranian rial. The rial has continuously fallen since the inception of the Islamic Republic in 1979, but it turned into a steep fall in 2018 when the United States withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear deal, demanding its revision. Oil export sanctions and international banking restrictions imposed by the Trump administration badly hurt Iran’s oil-dependent economy.

“My top priority will be to address the economic problems of the people," added the former president.

However, registering as a candidate does not mean that a politician can automatically participate in the election. Iran’s governing system has a powerful watchdog called the Guardian Council that vets all candidates and according to obscure criteria decides whose name can be on the ballot.

Asked if he thinks he will be permitted by the Guardian Council to run for the presidency, Ahmadinejad kept silent and just smiled, a video of him at the Interior Ministry shows.

The Guardian Council, loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei barred Ahmadinejad from running in the 2017 and 2021 presidential elections. Following his disqualification in 2017, the hated and loved politician became a vocal critic of the ruling elite’s governance, even going as far as criticizing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

He was not the only well-known figure who was barred from running in mid-2021. Former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and former Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri were also barred, opening the path for Ebrahim Raisi to win a low-turnout election as a hardliner candidate.

After Raisi’s victory, Ahmadinejad was apparently put on a short leash and mostly stopped commenting and criticizing. With Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash last month, he came out of the shadows and began commenting about a bright future for Iranians.

Elahian, 57, is a physician and former member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. She was elected to parliament twice on the hardliners’ slate.

In her speech following registration, Elahian declared her motto: “Sound government, sound economy, sound society,” and pledged to combat corruption.

Like other hardliners, Elahian supports compulsory hijab rules. In March, Canada imposed sanctions against her for endorsing the death penalty for protesters involved in the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement. Her candidacy comes after months of harsh policies and actions by the government against women who defy compulsory hijab.

Zohreh Elahian enters interior ministry to register

Elahian’s qualification to run hinges on the Guardian Council's interpretation of a controversial article of the Constitution. The Guardian Council, the sole body empowered by the Constitution to interpret it, has historically disqualified female candidates. This disqualification is based on Article 115, which stipulates that candidates must be from among political or religious "rijal" (the plural of "rajul"), a masculine Arabic noun meaning "men."

However, some constitutional experts and politicians interpret "rijal" to mean "figures" or "persons" irrespective of gender, rather than exclusively "men."

Azam Taleghani, a veteran reformist politician and journalist, registered to run in every presidential election from 1997 until her death in 2019. Despite being described as an “Islamic feminist,” Taleghani was rejected by the Guardian Council every time.

In 2009, populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposed Elahian as Minister of Welfare and Social Security. However, she declined the nomination, citing opposition from senior Shia clerics (maraje’) to women serving as ministers.

Another of Ahmadinejad’s female nominees, hardliner Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, a physician and former lawmaker, was approved by parliament as Minister of Health, making her the first and only female minister in the history of the Islamic Republic.

Several other political figures registered to run on Saturday, including ultra-hardliner Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani, reformist lawmaker and former first deputy speaker Masoud Pezeshkian, and Vahid Haghanian, a member of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office.

Haghanian’s registration, dubbed by social media users as the “biggest surprise” of the election registrations, and his motives has baffled observers. Like Elahian, many believe there is no chance he will be qualified to run. Some people even claim he no longer holds a position at Khamenei’s office.

“We were quick to judge about him. He is known as the black box, but he has apparently not held any positions in a long time,” Hossein Ebrahimi, a conservative cleric and politician, tweeted. Ebrahimi added that there is a high possibility of Haghanian’s disqualification, apparently due to open cases with the judiciary.

This may refer to allegations of espionage against him that surfaced in January after the execution of Mohsen Saravani, 24, on charges of spying for Israel. Saravani had been photographed with Haghanian and was said to be close to him. Around the same time Haghanian ceased to appear in public.

Behnam Gholipour, expatriate journalist, in a tweet on Saturday called Haghanian an “scapegoat candidate”. “He will be sacrificed to mask disqualification of others. Then everyone will say Larijani and Ahmadinejad don’t even count [because] Khamenei’s right-hand man was disqualified,” he wrote.