Excerpt
Iran election campaign kicks off, without Ahmadinejad
Campaigning began on Friday for Iran’s presidential election with incumbent Hassan Rouhani facing a tough battle against hardliners, though not from former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was barred from standing.
Ahmadinejad’s disqualification by the conservative-run Guardian Council was no surprise — he had been advised not to run by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who said it would “polarize” the nation
His populist economics and defiant attitude to the establishment had alienated even Ahmadinejad’s hardline backers during his 2005-2013 tenure.
“Once the supreme leader had told him not to stand, it became impossible for him to be cleared by the Guardian Council,” said Clement Therme, research fellow for Iran at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“By his second term, (Ahmadinejad) was even challenging the clerics. He was not useful anymore for the system.”
The mood in Tehran has been subdued — many are disillusioned with Rouhani’s failure to kick-start the economy despite broad support for his efforts to rebuild ties with the West, notably through a nuclear deal with world powers that eased sanctions.
There has been uproar over a decision by the election commission to ban live TV debates, seen by some as an attempt to prevent embarrassment to some of the candidates or the regime as a whole.
The build-up to the vote has injected more interest than many predicted just a couple of months ago, when Rouhani was seen as a shoo-in for a second term if only because the conservative opposition seemed unable to offer a strong candidate.
Since then, the 56-year-old former judge and cleric Ebrahim Raisi has emerged as a front-runner for the conservatives.
Little-known on the political scene, Raisi runs a powerful religious foundation and business empire in the holy city of Mashhad and is seen as a close ally of — and possible successor to — supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But despite emphasizing his care for the poor, many say Raisi’s hardline judicial background and entourage will turn off voters.
“He seems like a good and calm person himself, but the people around him are scary,” said a tour operator in Yazd, echoing a widely heard sentiment.
Some think he may drop out at the last minute in favour of Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who came second to Rouhani in 2013.
Ghalibaf — a war veteran, former Revolutionary Guards commander and police chief — has support from powerful backroom hardliners and presents himself as a pragmatic problem-solver.
“Economic problems cannot be solved from behind a desk,” he said Friday.
The other three candidates are seen as support for the main players in the upcoming debates.
All the views expressed at the source of this article may not necessarily reflect those of T.E.A. Watchers.
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