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Iran Opens Registration for Pres. Vote 05/30 06:36
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran opened a five-day registration
period Thursday for hopefuls wanting to run in the June 28 presidential
election to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter
crash earlier this month with seven others.
The election comes as Iran grapples with the aftermath of the May 19 crash,
as well as heightened tensions between Tehran and the United States, and
protests including those over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini that have swept the
country.
While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, maintains final say over
all matters of state, presidents in the past have bent the Islamic Republic of
Iran toward greater interaction or increased hostility with the West.
The five-day period will see those between the ages of 40 to 75 with at
least a master's degree register as potential candidates. All candidates
ultimately must be approved by Iran's 12-member Guardian Council, a panel of
clerics and jurists ultimately overseen by Khamenei. That panel has never
accepted a woman, for instance, nor anyone calling for radical change within
the country's governance.
Ahmad Vahidi, Iran's interior minister, opened the registration period. The
Interior Ministry, in charge of the country's police, run Iranian elections
with no substantial international observation.
"These elections, like the parliamentary elections, will be held in complete
safety and health, with good competition and wide participation of all dear
people," Vahidi said.
Raisi, a protege of Khamenei, won Iran's 2021 presidential election after
the Guardian Council disqualified all of the candidates with the best chance to
potentially challenge him. That vote saw the lowest turnout in Iran's history
for a presidential election. This year's parliamentary vote saw an even-lower
turnout amid widespread boycott calls.
That likely was a sign of voters' discontent with both a hard-line cleric
sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in mass executions in 1988,
and Iran's Shiite theocracy over four decades after its 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Who will run -- and potentially be accepted -- remains in question. The
country's acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, a previously behind-the-scenes
bureaucrat, could be a front-runner, because he's already been seen meeting
with Khamenei. Also discussed as possible aspirants are former hard-line
President Mohammad Ahmadinejad and former reformist President Mohammad Khatami
-- but whether they'd be allowed to run is another question.
The five-day registration period will close on Tuesday. The Guardian Council
is expected to issue its final list of candidates within 10 days afterwards.
That will allow for a shortened two-week campaign before the vote in late June.
The new president will take office while the country now enriches uranium at
nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections. Iran has
armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a drone and missile
attack on Israel amid the war in Gaza. Tehran also has continued arming proxy
groups in the Middle East, like Yemen's Houthi rebels and Lebanon's Hezbollah
militia.
Meanwhile, Iran's economy has faced years of hardship over its collapsing
rial currency. Widespread protests have swept the country, most recently over
Amini's death following her arrest over allegedly not wearing her mandatory
headscarf to the liking of authorities, A U.N. panel says the Iranian
government is responsible for the "physical violence" that led to Amini's death.
Raisi is just the second Iranian president to die in office. In 1981, a bomb
blast killed President Mohammad Ali Rajai in the chaotic days after the Islamic
Revolution.
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