DUBAI – The last day of registration for Iran’s presidential candidates began on Saturday with several high-profile figures yet to declare whether they would run in the most uncertain election in decades.
The June 14 poll will be the first presidential election in Iran since 2009, when mass protests dubbed the “Green Movement” erupted after the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over reformist candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi.
Since then, reformists who espouse greater social and political freedoms have been suppressed or sidelined. Mousavi, his wife and Karoubi have been under house arrest for more than two years. Now, the prestige of Iran’s most powerful man, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is threatened by intense rivalry between hardline groups polarized by Ahmadinejad, who has been accused of wanting to erode the system of clerical rule.
Early on Saturday, Iranian media reported the registration of the charismatic mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a member of a three-man coalition of “Principlists” – loyal defenders of Khamenei and the theocratic system who are, by implication, hostile to Ahmadinejad.
Another coalition member, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, registered on Friday and the third, Ali Akbar Velayati – a former foreign minister and adviser to Khamenei - was expected to register on Saturday.
About 400 candidates have registered so far, including moderate cleric Hassan Rohani, a former nuclear negotiator under reformist president Mohammad Khatami, and several other reformists including former member of parliament Mostafa Kavakebian and Mohammad Aref, a vice president under Khatami.
Two other Principlists, Mohammad Hassan Abu-Torabi Fard and former health minister Kamran Baqeri Lankarani, are also running, as is Mohsen Rezaie, who headed the Revolutionary Guards and lost to Ahmadinejad in 2009. But the biggest political hitters have left it to the last minute to make their decision.
Feverish speculation surrounds several potential candidates, including Khatami, who retains much popularity but is viewed with suspicion by conservatives for his support of Mousavi four years ago. Khatami has not officially ruled himself out but on Friday endorsed former centrist president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and said he hoped he would run.
Rafsanjani, 78, has indicated he may run but only if the supreme leader consents. He has some support among reformists because of his support for the opposition movement in 2009.
“The chance of Mr Rafsanjani becoming a candidate is not small,” said Mohammad Hossein Ziya, who campaigned in 2009 for Karoubi and now runs his website from the United States. “If Mr Rafsanjani becomes a candidate, I think the reformists and some portion of the Principlists will support him.” – AFP
