Iranian presidential election, 2005

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This article is about a current event. Information may change rapidly.

Iranian presidential election of 2005 will take place in May or June, 2005. Mohammad Khatami, the present President of Iran, will need to step down on August 2, 2005, after serving his maximal two consecutive four-year terms according to the Islamic Republic's constitution.

Schedule

The schedule of the election is not determined yet, but will be decided between the Ministry of Interior and the Guardian Council. According to the presidential election law, the registration of the candidates may begin no earlier than three Iranian months before the end of the previous president's term (May 1, 2005). Also, according to the Iranian constitution, the election should take place at least one month eariler than the end of the term (July 2, 2005). But since the election may continue into a runoff race, which will take place at least a week later than the first round of elections, it's almost impossible for the first round to take place later than June 24, 2005. Most possibly, the election will take place in late May or early June.

The first suggetion by the Ministry, for May 13, 2005, was rejected by the Council on November 13, 2004.

Candidates

No person has confirmed that he is running for the post of president yet, and the registration will only begin on May, 2005, or possibly later.

The candidates must first be approved by the Guardian Council before being put to public vote, and there is a chance that some of the possible reformist candidates won't win the approval, specially Behzad Nabavi or Mohammad Reza Khatami, who were rejected by the Council in the parliamentary elections of 2004. Also, there is a very high probability of rejection of women, because of an ambiguous term ("rejaal", رجال) in the Constitution of Iran, which is a requirement for presidential candidates which either means "men" or "famous people". The Guardian Council, who is also the official interpreter of the constitution, has mentioned on previous elections that the restriction has not been considered in depth yet, since according to the Council's opinion there were no women who passed the other requirements of the constitution.

There are also discussions about a possible new law passed by the Majlis, restrictiing the maximum age of the candidates for the presidential elections, which may limit participation of older candidates, probably Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mehdi Karroubi. But the Guardian Council, which is required to confirm every law passed by the Majlis, will most probably reject such a law, as mentioned by the Council's speaker, Gholamhossein Elham, on November 13, 2004.

There exist many contradicting reports about the possible candidates and people's declinations. The list of possible candidates include:

• Trans-party:
  • Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council and a former President of Iran, who may win the support of certain parties from both of the wings, but is considered to be leaned towards the conservatives more than towards the reformists. He is invited to run for president by Executives of Construction Party (reformist), Islamic Labour Party (conservative), Jam'iyat-e Vafaadaaraan-e Enghelaab-e Eslaami (conservative), Moderation and Development Party (conservative), and Workers' House (reformist).

• Reformists:
  • Confirmed to run:
    • Mostafa Moin, former Minister of Science, Research and Technology, supported by Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) and Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (MIRO). IIPF, as the most influential reformist party in Iran, has mentioned that they won't support any presidential candidate outside the party, except Mousavi and Moin. Since Mousavi has declined to run, they are currently supporting Moin, whom they claim to be the most probable candidate to win the approval of other parties in the reformist alliance. Moin's candidacy was confirmed by Abdollah Ramezanzadeh on November 13, 2004, when talking in IIPF's office in Mashhad [1]. Some conservative Majlis representatives, including Mehdi Kouchakzadeh and Teymour Ali Asgari, have asked for the Guardian Council's rejection of Moin.
  • Uncertain:
    • Mohammad Reza Aref, First Vice President, member of IIPF
    • Safdar Hosseini, Minister of Economy and Finance Affair, member of IIPF
    • Mehdi Karroubi, former Majlis Speaker, Secretary General of Militant Clerics Society (MCS)
    • Mohammad Reza Khatami, former Majlis Vice Speaker, Secretary General of IIPF
    • Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ruhollah Khomeini
    • Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh, Vice-President and Head of National Sports Organization, member of IIPF
    • Behzad Nabavi, former Majlis Vice Speaker, member of MIRO
    • Mohammad Ali Najafi, former Minister of Education, member of Executives of Construction Party (ECP)
    • Bizhan Namdar-Zangeneh, Minister of Petroleum, member of ECP
    • Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Spokesman of Government, member of IIPF
    • Sadegh Tabatabaee, brother-in-law of Ahmad Khomeini
  • Declined:
    • Mir-Hossein Mousavi, former Prime Minister, declined on October 12, 2004
    • Mohammad Mousavi-Khoiniha, member of MCS, declined on November 21, 2004
    • Hadi Khamenei, member of Society of Forces Following the Line of the Imam on December 6, 2004

• Conservatives:
  • Confirmed to run:
    • Ahmad Tavakkoli, Majlis representative and Director of Majlis Research Center, former presidential candidate,On December 7 he confirmed he is ready to run.
  • Uncertain:
  • Ali Akbar Velayati, an Adviser to the Supreme Leader and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, he confirmed he is ready to run (1)
  • Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad, Mayor of Tehran, member of Islamic Society of Engineers
  • Habibollah Asgar-Owladi, member of Islamic Coalition Party (ICP)
  • Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, Speaker of Majlis
  • Abdollah Jaspi, director of Islamic Azad University, member of ICP
  • Ali Larijani, Supreme Leader's representative in National Security Council, member of ICP
  • Mohsen Rezai, Secretary of Expediency Discernment Council
  • Hassan Rouhani, Secretary of National Security Council
  • Ahmad Tavakkoli, Majlis representative and Director of Majlis Research Center, former presidential candidate
  • Reza Zavare'i, former member of Guardian Council, member of ICP

• • Declined:
  • Mohammad Javad Larijani, director of IPM, he strongly endorses his brother Ali Larijani fpr presidency

• Independents:
  • Shirin Ebadi, winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 2003
  • Nasser Hejazi, former national football player
  • Azam Taleghani, daughter of Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani

See also: Politics of Iran

External links

• ISNA report on Mousavi's declination, reported by Karroubi (in Persian)
• Situation on [[December 6] ]

Sources

• Iran newspaper on the elections atmosphere after Mousavi'e declination (in Persian)
• The Guardian Council didn't accept the date suggested by the Ministry of Interior, ISNA's report on the details of the date
• various news articles by Shargh newspaper