Iran’s Guardian Council has gone through the 1,500 registered candidates for the upcoming presidential election and whittled it down to six candidates who can run. Obviously this includes incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, with his main challenges a pair of hardliners, former Attorney General Ebrahim Raisi and Tehran Mayor Bagher Qalibaf.

The other three candidates approved are Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, former Vice President Mostafa Hashemitaba, and former Culture Minister Mostafa Mirsalim. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had also registered, was denied a spot.

Ahmadinejad was widely expected to be barred from running, as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned him against filing in the first place. Analysts saw the move as an attempt to try to force a compromise, in which his candidate of choice, Hamid Baghiae, would be approved.

That didn’t work, however, and Baghiae didn’t make the cut either, with the Guardian Council reportedly concerned by the embezzlement charges he’d faced in the past. The expectation is that the vote will basically come down to Rouhani and Raisi, with Raisi the favored candidate of Khamenei.
• US Seeks Saudi Assurances on Limiting Yemen Civilian Casualties Ahead of Arms Sales - April 20th, 2017 </s> President Hassan Rouhani was among six candidates approved Thursday by Iran's conservative-dominated Guardian Council to run in next month's election while former leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was barred, state media reported.

The other candidates selected were hardliners Ebrahim Raisi and Mostafa Mirsalim, Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, veteran politician Mostafa Hashemitaba and Rouhani's ally and vice-president Eshaq Jahangiri.

Former hardline president Ahmadinejad, who ruled from 2005 to 2013, was barred along with his close ally Hamid Baghaie.

Ahmadinejad shocked everyone by registering as a candidate last week against the advice of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- a move which many described as political suicide.

More than 1,600 candidates registered to run in the May 19 election, but the Guardian Council only ever selects around half a dozen.

More than 130 women registered but none has ever been allowed to stand.

Although campaigning was not due to start until April 28, the Guardian Council announced that it could begin immediately.

Rouhani, a politically moderate cleric, has won praise since his landslide win in 2013 for taming inflation and reaching a groundbreaking nuclear deal with world powers that ended many sanctions.

But disappointment over Iran's continued economic stagnation is palpable on the streets, creating an opening for conservative opponents, with judicial cleric Raisi considered by many to be their frontrunner.

Unemployment is stuck at 12 percent, the promised billions in foreign investment have not materialised, and Rouhani has failed to release political prisoners, including reformist leaders under house arrest for their part in 2009 protests.

The aggressive stance of US President Donald Trump, who has slapped new sanctions on Iran and threatened to tear up the nuclear deal, has bolstered conservative claims that Rouhani was duped by the West.

The conservatives are more divided, but Raisi has garnered considerable momentum.

The 56-year-old judge, who currently runs the powerful charity-cum-business-empire Astan Qods Razavi, has emphasised his concern for the poor and is seen as a close ally of -- and possible successor to -- supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tehran mayor Ghalibaf, who came second to Rouhani in 2013, is also considered a front-runner.

The 55-year-old is a war veteran, former Revolutionary Guards commander and police chief, and considered a staunch conservative.

He has focused his early comments on the economy, saying he would create five million jobs and more than double Iran's revenues, although such promises have been ridiculed as wildly unrealistic by reformist opponents.

Mirsalim has been a central figure in the mainstream conservative movement for years, but has not seen much of the spotlight during this election season.

Hashemitaba is a veteran politician, having served variously as an industry minister, vice-president and head of physical education through several administrations since the 1980s, though he has barely figured in local coverage of the election so far.

Rouhani has been hit by the loss of a key backer in recent months: heavyweight former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who passed away in January, played a central role in his surprising landslide victory in 2013.

But crucially, Rouhani retains the unified support of moderates and reformists, who still see him as the best hope for change within the strict parameters of Iran's Islamic system.

Jahangiri said he was only standing in the election to support Rouhani during the campaign and in TV debates, saying last week that he stood "side-by-side" with the president.

Iran's interior ministry said Thursday there would be no live debates in the run-up to next month's vote. </s> Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mayor of Tehran, shows his ink-stained finger after registering his candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections at the ministry of interior in the capital Tehran on April 14, 2017 (AFP Photo/STR)

Tehran (AFP) - Registration for next month's Iranian presidential election closed on Saturday, with more than 1,600 hopefuls signing up, including a last-minute entry by Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

The 55-year-old conservative mayor had given mixed signals about whether he would make a third bid for the presidency, but showed up at the interior ministry just before the deadline for registration.

There was also a surprise last-minute entry from first vice-president Eshaq Jahangiri, a close confidante of President Hassan Rouhani who registered on Friday.

It is assumed Jahangiri, a 60-year-old reformist, is running to offer an alternative in case Rouhani is disqualified by the Guardian Council, which vets the candidates. Others speculate he could be trying to raise his profile ahead of a more concerted bid in 2021.

Rouhani, a politically moderate cleric who has stabilised the economy and overseen a partial rapprochement with the West, is widely seen as the man to beat, although there is little polling in Iran and past elections have thrown up major surprises.

His main challenger is considered to be hardline cleric and judge Ebrahim Raisi, 56, who also signed up on Friday.

Almost all will be disqualified over the coming fortnight by the Guardian Council, which is controlled by religious conservatives.

The council has never permitted a woman to run.

Around half a dozen candidates are normally approved, with the campaign set to start on April 28 and the vote on May 19.

Ghalibaf was the runner-up to Rouhani in 2013. He is a war veteran, former Revolutionary Guards commander and police chief, who was picked by a grouping of conservatives as one of their top choices last week, along with Raisi.

With much of the focus this year on Iran's stagnant economy, he told reporters at the registration that he would create five million jobs and more than double Iran's revenues.

The biggest surprise from this week's registration was the appearance of former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 60, who shocked everyone by signing up against the advice of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. </s> TEHERAN, Iran (AFP) - President Hassan Rouhani was among six candidates approved on Thursday (April 20) by Iran's conservative-dominated Guardian Council to run in next month's election while former leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was barred, state media reported.

The other candidates selected were hardliners Ebrahim Raisi and Mostafa Mirsalim, Teheran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, veteran politician Mostafa Hashemitaba and Rouhani's ally and vice-president Eshaq Jahangiri.

Former hardline president Ahmadinejad, who ruled from 2005 to 2013, was barred along with his close ally Hamid Baghaie.

Ahmadinejad shocked everyone by registering as a candidate last week against the advice of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - a move which many described as political suicide.

More than 1,600 candidates registered to run in the May 19 election, but the Guardian Council only ever selects around half a dozen.

More than 130 women registered but none has ever been allowed to stand.

Although campaigning was not due to start until April 28, the Guardian Council announced that it could begin immediately.

Rouhani, a politically moderate cleric, has won praise since his landslide win in 2013 for taming inflation and reaching a groundbreaking nuclear deal with world powers that ended many sanctions.

But disappointment over Iran's continued economic stagnation is palpable on the streets, creating an opening for conservative opponents, with judicial cleric Raisi considered by many to be their frontrunner.

Unemployment is stuck at 12 per cent, the promised billions in foreign investment have not materialised, and Rouhani has failed to release political prisoners, including reformist leaders under house arrest for their part in 2009 protests.

The aggressive stance of US President Donald Trump, who has slapped new sanctions on Iran and threatened to tear up the nuclear deal, has bolstered conservative claims that Rouhani was duped by the West.

The conservatives are more divided, but Raisi has garnered considerable momentum.

The 56-year-old judge, who currently runs the powerful charity-cum-business-empire Astan Qods Razavi, has emphasised his concern for the poor and is seen as a close ally of - and possible successor to - supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Teheran mayor Ghalibaf, who came second to Rouhani in 2013, is also considered a front-runner.

The 55-year-old is a war veteran, former Revolutionary Guards commander and police chief, and considered a staunch conservative.

He has focused his early comments on the economy, saying he would create five million jobs and more than double Iran's revenues, although such promises have been ridiculed as wildly unrealistic by reformist opponents.

Mirsalim has been a central figure in the mainstream conservative movement for years, but has not seen much of the spotlight during this election season.

Hashemitaba is a veteran politician, having served variously as an industry minister, vice-president and head of physical education through several administrations since the 1980s, though he has barely figured in local coverage of the election so far.

Rouhani has been hit by the loss of a key backer in recent months: heavyweight former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who passed away in January, played a central role in his surprising landslide victory in 2013.

But crucially, Rouhani retains the unified support of moderates and reformists, who still see him as the best hope for change within the strict parameters of Iran's Islamic system.

Jahangiri said he was only standing in the election to support Rouhani during the campaign and in TV debates, saying last week that he stood "side-by-side" with the president.

Iran's interior ministry said Thursday there would be no live debates in the run-up to next month's vote. </s> Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s moderate president who is seeking re-election, faces a boisterous race after heavyweight conservative figures critical of his landmark nuclear agreement with the west put themselves up to challenge him.

Registration for candidates in Iran’s presidential elections next month ended on Saturday, with a record number of 1,636 people putting their names on the list, including 137 women. On Friday, Rouhani took his ID card, a few passport-sized photos and other paperwork to the interior ministry in Tehran’s Fatemi Street to register to run for a second term. His four predecessors have all served two conservative terms.

Ebrahim Raisi, a close ally of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose bid for presidency has upended the race, also registered on Friday. The former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Tehran’s mayor, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, are among a handful of other serious candidates running.

The list of presidential hopefuls has been sent to the guardian council, a powerful body of jurists and clerics, which began a five-day vetting process on Sunday. A limited number of candidates are usually allowed through. Critics say the council has arbitrarily blocked many high-profile politicians in recent years, going beyond its constitutional responsibilities.

This year, all eyes are on the council to see if it will approve Ahmadinejad, who registered despite advice by Khamenei not to. The campaign period starts on 28 April and ends one day before the vote, which is scheduled for 19 May.

Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at the University of St Andrews, said Raisi’s surprising decision to run has been “the fly in the ointment” in what could have been a relatively straightforward, albeit challenging, race for Rouhani to win a second term. Raisi’s rise to prominence over the past year has intrigued many commentators who speculate that he is being touted as a frontrunner to succeed Khamenei, a higher position than that of the president.

“I think definitely it has complicated the race,” Ansari said. “I think the fact that Raisi is coming, unless he steps aside, it looks very unlikely to me that the nezam [ruling system] would allow Raisi to be humiliated in an election. He hasn’t come to lose. He is an up-and-coming player in the system and in the last six months he’s basically come from nowhere.”

There are also concerns about Rouhani’s possible disqualification. That explains why his first deputy, Eshaq Jahangiri, a figure close to the reformists, also registered to run on Saturday. “I’m here to supplement Rouhani,” he said, meaning that his bid for the presidency was tactical and that he would drop out if Rouhani is allowed to run.

“Rouhani is not in as strong a position as we think he is, because he delivered the JCPOA [nuclear deal]. JCPOA in Iran is not seen as a giant triumph, and for me the problem for me is the way Rouhani sold it,” Ansari said. 



“He has stablised the economy, but I think he made a number of very exaggerated claims, and he is now paying the price in the popular mood. But in an open election I think people would vote for Rouhani . Rouhani is the best of a bad choice, but at the same time I don’t think he’s as clear a winner as some people in the west would like to think.”

Although women have registered, all female nominees have previously been blocked from running. Azam Talaghani, a former MP and the daughter of a prominent revolutionary ayatollah, is among the women who have put their names on the list to test whether the authorities would allow women to run. </s> Iran's Interior Ministry says the Guardian Council has confirmed the result of the country's 12th presidential election, which saw President Hassan Rouhani reelected for another four years in office.

Guardian Council is the body responsible for overseeing elections and confirming their results in Iran.

“Minutes ago, the Guardian Council’s letter confirming the validity of the 12th presidential election was received,” Interior Ministry Spokesman Salman Samani said on Tuesday.

In the letter, Secretary of the Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati announced that the body had received and examined reports and complaints about the election process and ultimately verified the poll’s overall result, he added.

The official said the 12-member supervisory body had received complaints of irregularities in the electoral activities before the election and on the day of voting on May 19, adding that some of them had been sent to judicial bodies for more investigation.

An Iranian woman casts her ballot in the presidential election at a polling station in Tehran on May 19, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

President Rouhani, a moderate candidate, won a resounding reelection victory with 23,549,616 votes or 57 percent of the total ballots. His main rival in the four-man race, Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi, a principlist, secured 15,786,449 votes or 38.5 percent of the ballots. Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim and Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, the other two candidates, received 478,215 and 215,450 votes respectively.

Overall turnout in Iran's 12th presidential election was registered at over 73 percent.

Six candidates had been approved after vetting by the Guardian Council to run for president. In the final days of campaigning, however, two of the candidates, namely First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, withdrew from the race in favor of President Rouhani and Raeisi, respectively. </s> TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was barred from running in next month’s election Thursday while President Hassan Rouhani was among six candidates approved by Iran’s conservative-controlled Guardian Council, state media reported.

The other candidates selected were hardliners Ebrahim Raisi and Mostafa Mirsalim, Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, moderate Mostafa Hashemitaba and Rouhani’s ally and vice-president Eshaq Jahangiri.

Former hardline president Ahmadinejad, who ruled from 2005 to 2013, was barred along with his close ally Hamid Baghaie.

Ahmadinejad shocked everyone by registering as a candidate last week against the advice of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — a move which many described as political suicide.

More than 1,600 candidates registered to run in the May 19 election, but the Guardian Council only ever selects around half a dozen.

More than 130 women registered but none has ever been allowed to stand.

“In Iran, it’s not only an election, it’s also a selection,” said Clement Therme, Iran research fellow for the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Although campaigning was not due to start until April 28, the Guardian Council announced that it could begin immediately.

Rouhani, a politically moderate cleric, has won praise since his landslide win in 2013 for taming inflation and reaching a groundbreaking nuclear deal with world powers that ended many sanctions.

But disappointment over Iran’s continued economic stagnation is palpable on the streets, creating an opening for conservative opponents.

Unemployment is stuck at 12 percent, the promised billions in foreign investment have not materialised, and Rouhani has failed to release political prisoners, including reformist leaders under house arrest for their part in 2009 protests.

“The problem has been the nature of Rouhani’s economic agenda. His administration has a discourse of social justice but they are ultimately neoliberal, and this has provoked disappointment,” said Therme.

The aggressive stance of US President Donald Trump, who has slapped new sanctions on Iran and threatened to tear up the nuclear deal, has bolstered conservative claims that Rouhani’s outreach to the West has been misguided.

The conservatives are divided, but Raisi has garnered considerable momentum.

The 56-year-old judge, who currently runs the powerful charity-cum-business-empire Astan Qods Razavi, has emphasized his concern for the poor and is seen as a close ally of — and possible successor to — supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tehran mayor Ghalibaf, who came second to Rouhani in 2013, is also considered a front-runner.

The 55-year-old is a war veteran, former Revolutionary Guards commander and police chief, and considered a staunch if pragmatic conservative.

He has focused his early comments on the economy, saying he would create five million jobs and more than double Iran’s revenues, although such promises have been ridiculed as wildly unrealistic by reformist opponents.

Mirsalim, 71, was a culture minister in the early 1990s, known for dramatically increasing censorship and shutting down opposition newspapers. He belongs to one of the older conservative parties, the Islamic Coalition.

Hashemitaba, 71, has served variously as industry minister, vice-president and head of Iran’s National Olympic Committee through several administrations since the revolution, though he has figured only marginally in local coverage of the election so far.

Rouhani has been hit by the loss of a key backer in recent months: heavyweight former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who passed away in January, played a central role in his surprising landslide victory in 2013.

Rafsanjani’s brother, Mohammad Hashemi, was also among those disqualified on Thursday.

But crucially, Rouhani retains the unified support of moderates and reformists, who still see him as the best hope for change within the strict parameters of Iran’s Islamic system.

Jahangiri said he was only standing in the election to support Rouhani during the campaign and in TV debates, saying last week that he stood “side-by-side” with the president.

Iran’s election commission ruled on Thursday that there would be no live debates in the run-up to the election — a feature that has been hugely popular since they were introduced in 2009. Debates will instead be pre-recorded. </s> An Iranian panel charged with vetting candidates approved the country’s incumbent president and five challengers but disqualified former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running in next month’s presidential election, state television reported Thursday.

The decision by the Guardian Council means that President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, will face off against a field that includes two prominent hard-liners: Ebrahim Raisi, who is considered close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.

The Guardian Council, a cleric-dominated body that vets candidates, said it had compiled a final list of candidates earlier Thursday and that the Interior Ministry would announce their names by Sunday.

The panel controls elections and must approve all laws passed by parliament. It has never allowed a woman to run for president and routinely rejects political dissidents and others calling for dramatic reform.

Other presidential candidates who made the cut, according to an Interior Ministry statement carried by state TV, include moderate Senior Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, former conservative culture minister Mostafa Mirsalim, and former pro-reform vice-president Mostafa Hashemitaba.

Ahmadinejad, who remains a deeply polarizing figure even among Iranian hard-liners, had shocked the country by registering last week. Khamenei had previously urged him not to run.

Ahmadinejad was president from 2005 to 2013, and was best known abroad for his incendiary rhetoric toward Israel, his questioning of the scale of the Holocaust and his efforts to ramp up Iran’s nuclear program.

He said upon registering that he was doing so to support his former Vice-President Hamid Baghaei, who also failed to receive approval to run.

“He was an unwanted guest in the election,” Tehran-based political analyst Soroush Farhadi said of Ahmadinejad’s disqualification. He predicted the former president would nonetheless remain politically active during the campaign to create a “quasi-opposition face for himself” for the future.

Ali Akbar Javanfekr, a close ally of Ahmadinejad, downplayed the two candidates’ exclusion, saying on social media that Ahmadinejad and Baghaei had only registered out of “national, religious and revolutionary duty.”

“Thank god, the Guardian Council removed the duty from their shoulders,” he wrote.

More than 1,600 people registered to run for the May 19 election.

Under Iran’s clerically overseen system, the president is subordinate to Khamenei, who is Iran’s top decision-maker and has the final say on all matters of state. Khamenei appoints half the Guardian Council’s members.

Rouhani, 68, is hoping voters will deliver him a second term to see out his promises of greater personal freedoms at home and openness to the wider world as he works to turn around Iran’s sagging economy — a top priority for many voters.

The election will be in many ways a referendum on his administration’s negotiation of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. That agreement gave Iran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for limits to its nuclear program, but has been assailed by hard-liners who believe Iran gave too much away in exchange for too little.

While reliable polling information is not widely available, most political observers see Rouhani as the current front-runner even though he has been unable to significantly turn around Iran’s slumping economy. Every incumbent since Khamenei himself took the presidency in 1981 has won re-election.

Rouhani, though no radical, has the support of many reform-minded Iranians. Khamenei himself also might favour a second term for Rouhani despite his closeness to more hard-line candidates.

“Iranian presidents tend to become much weaker in their second terms, with a key cause being their greater susceptibility to control by the supreme leader and his institutions,” Mehdi Khalaji, an Iran expert at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote this week. “This helps explain Khamenei’s possible abstention from active support for the hard-line candidates.”

Rouhani’s toughest challenge could come from Raisi, 56, a hard-line cleric and professor of Islamic law who has promised to fight poverty and corruption if he’s elected. Many hard-liners have rallied around Raisi, who got a boost last year when Khamenei appointed him head of an Islamic charity that holds extensive business interests in Iran.

He has held several judiciary positions, including serving as attorney general from 2014 to 2016, and is mentioned as a possible successor for Khamenei himself. </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and hardline rival Ebrahim Raisi were both approved to run in May’s presidential election by a government vetting body, while former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was disqualified, state media reported on Thursday.

FILE PHOTO: Iranian senior cleric Ebrahim Raisis gestures as he meets grand clerics in the holy city of Qom, Iran, in this handout photo believed to be taken in April 2016. Tasnim News Agency/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

The approval of Rouhani, a moderate, and Raisi, a political hardliner thought to have the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sets up a showdown between rival political camps.

Four other candidates were also qualified to run. Among them are Rouhani’s vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

Khamenei had advised Ahmadinejad not to run, and his attempt to become a candidate was widely seen as a public snub to the Supreme Leader, which is nearly unheard of in the Islamic Republic.

The disqualification of Ahmadinejad, a two-term president, draws attention to the criteria that the Guardian Council, the governmental body which vets candidates, uses in the selection process.

Khamenei appoints half of the members of the Guardian Council, and by disqualifying Ahmadinejad, the body runs the risk of being seen as a rubber stamp for the Supreme Leader, who is the highest authority in the country.

Rouhani and Raisi will likely face off over the economy as well as the nuclear deal signed with Western powers, which Rouhani has highlighted as his signature achievement during the past four years in office.

Iran agreed to curb portions of its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of several sanctions as part of the deal.

Political hardliners see the deal as a form of capitulation and are wary of the opening it presents for Western companies to work in the Islamic Republic.

In recent days, Raisi, who was appointed by Khamenei as the head of a multi-billion-dollar religious foundation last year, has repeatedly blasted Rouhani’s economic performance.

Khamenei has also criticized Rouhani’s economic performance in recent speeches and called on the government to do more to address the issue of unemployment.

About 3.2 million Iranian are jobless out of a total population of 80 million.

Rouhani has claimed that inflation has decreased and the economy has grown on his watch. He has also said in recent public appearances that the judiciary and security forces should be more mindful of ordinary Iranians’ rights and privacy, which is likely to appeal to his supporters.

Rouhani was elected in 2013 with a promise to bring about greater individual freedom and detente with the West. Some of his supporters say he has fallen short of those goals.

Regardless of how the rivalry between Rouhani and Raisi plays out, top Iranian officials, including Khamenei, have said they will confront any individuals or groups who attempt to destabilize the country.

Iranian police fanned out across Tehran after the names of the candidates were announced on Thursday night, according to the news site of the Iranian judiciary Mizan Online.

Slideshow (2 Images)

Live debates between presidential candidates, a feature in the last two presidential elections, have also been called off, according to state media. Pre-taped interviews will air instead, perhaps to keep candidates from stoking up their supporters.

Widespread protests broke out and continued for months after the disputed election of Ahmadinejad in 2009, and led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests.

“The bitter incidents of (2009) will not be repeated,” Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said on Wednesday, according to state media.
Guardian Council announces names of six final candidates. Incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, chairman of Astan Quds Razavi Ebrahim Raisi and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is among the list. More than 1,600 nominees were disqualified, including all 137 female candidates and former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.