15th May 2021 registration for Iran’s 13th presidential election ended, with nearly 600 people registered to run. Among the top presidential candidates are Iran’s judicial director, Ebrahim Raisi, Ali Larijani, the former speaker of Iran’s Islamic parliament, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s former president, Eshaq Jahangiri, the current first vice-president, and Saeed Jalili, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator.
Iran’s Financial Tribune reported on May 16th that after the registration of registration for the five-day presidential election, Iran’s Guardian Council will screen and publish a final list of candidates. According to the data, 1,636 people registered to run in Iran’s 2017 presidential election, and six eventually passed the Guardian Council’s qualification examination.
According to the Financial Tribune, Lacey, Larijani, Jahangiri and others are high-profile candidates. Media outlets such as AFP and the BBC believe Mr Lacey and Mr Larijani are the most vocal, and both have political positions that favour conservatives. Rouhani, the current president and reformist politician, has served two consecutive terms and is unable to run in the current presidential election.
Who can have the upper hand?
A total of 592 people, 552 men and 40 women, have signed up for the 2021 presidential election, CCTV News reported, citing Iran’s state-run News Agency. It is understood that in 2009, 2013 and 2017 Iran’s presidential election, respectively, 476 people, 686 people and 1636 people signed up.
Among the many candidates, the most vocal of the calls, Lacey and Larijani, are conservatives. Lacey is running for a second time, according to the Financial Tribune. In the 2017 presidential election, Lacey lost to Rouhani, then president and reformist figure seeking re-election. Lacey stressed on the 15th that he is an “independent candidate” who will work for changes in the country’s administration and fight poverty, corruption, humiliation and discrimination.
According to AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, LACEY IS SEEN AS A KEY FIGURE IN THIS YEAR’S CONSERVATIVE CAMP. Lacey has a rich resume in the judicial system. He holds the Shiite religious title “Khojat Islam”, which ranks higher among Shia religious scholars. Lacey is also a student of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has close ties to him. The Associated Press says Lacey has built up a lot of popularity through anti-corruption slogans and mobilization. Two of the conservatives’ main political coalitions have spoken out in support of Lacey.
Larijani, another high-profile conservative candidate, is also close to Khamenei and is an adviser to the latter. Larijani also ran in the 2005 presidential election, when the winner was hardline conservative Ahmadinejad. Despite his conservative stance, Mr Larijani backed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, arguing that it would exempt Iran from sanctions. As a result, Mr Larijani is seen as a moderate conservative, and he has a better relationship with reformists such as Mr Rouhani.
In addition to the two conservatives, six military figures are running in the presidential election. Iranian media point to concerns that the military is playing an increasingly important role in Iranian politics, and reformists such as Rouhani are unhappy.
The re-registration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for election has also raised concerns. Ahmadinejad has also tried to run in the 2017 presidential election, but failed to qualify.
Responding to Lacey and the military, Larijani, who has a new sense of presence, said openly that the economy was neither a training nor a court business and could not be managed by “screaming” and “orders”. Iran’s Solidarity newspaper says Larijani has the hope of uniting moderate conservatives and reformists, as well as religious support.
According to the Financial Tribune, there are also reformist politicians among the registered candidates. But many voices point out that they are not as vocal as conservatives. During Rouhani’s second term, U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran weakened the momentum of Iran’s reformists. Rouhani, a reformist icon, will not run in the 2021 presidential election, and Zarif, a more vocal moderate and current foreign minister, has announced he will not run. At the end of April, a recording of an interview in which Zarif criticized Suleimani, commander of iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was assassinated by U.S. forces last year, as having too much influence on Iranian foreign policy. The incident caused an uproar and was seen as affecting the political popularity of reformists and moderates.
How will Iran’s president be elected?
Iran’s presidential election is held every four years, according to Xinhua. The President is elected by direct vote of the electorate and may be re-elected for one term. Candidates who obtain more than half of the votes cast in the first round of balloting will be directly elected, otherwise the candidates with the top two votes will enter the second round.
In addition to screening eligible presidential candidates, Iran’s Guardian Council will also certify the results after the election. The eventual winner must also be appointed by Iran’s supreme leader, now Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Guardian Council is composed of six clerics and six lawyers, of whom clergy representing Islam are appointed by the Supreme Leader and lawyers representing the Constitution are appointed by the Islamic Parliament, the national legislature.
According to the Financial Tribune, during the 2021 presidential election, Iran’s Guardian Council began the process of confirming the selection of presidential candidates on May 16 and began voting within the commission. According to the arrangement, the Committee is scheduled to announced the list of candidates on 20 May.
On June 18th Iran will formally hold presidential elections in which some 59 million eligible voters will be eligible to vote. Before the official election, eligible candidates have 20 days to campaign.
Comprehensive reports that iran’s nuclear negotiations and the Iranian economy are the main issues affecting the 2021 presidential election. Al-Monitor, a U.S.-based Middle East political news site, reported Tuesday that the U.S.-Iran negotiation process will have an impact on Iran’s presidential election. Reformists would benefit if recent negotiations in Vienna made positive progress on issues such as lifting sanctions and restarting the nuclear deal; In addition, the intensification of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could lead conservatives to try to push Iran to take a tougher line on Israel, which could also affect the presidential election.
