The Iranian authorities announced Tuesday, May 25, the disqualification of the main candidates supported by moderates and reformers vying for the presidential election of June 18. The Council of Guardians of the Constitution, an unelected body attached to the harshest wing of the regime, tasked with reviewing candidates based on their loyalty to the Islamic Republic, forwarded the list of seven candidates it had validated at the Ministry of the Interior.
All those who could have blocked the favorite candidate of the ultraconservatives, the head of the judiciary, Ebrahim Raïssi, have been dismissed. This central figure, involved in almost all major cases of human rights violations in Iran, seems well on course to become the next president. In 2017, Mr. Raïssi, who obtained 38% of the votes cast, came in second, behind the outgoing president, Hassan Rohani, a leading figure in the so-called “moderate” current. At the end of his second term, the latter can no longer stand this year.
Vice President reformer Eshagh Jahangiri and former Speaker of Parliament (2008-2020) moderate Ali Larijani are barred from running. A heavy blow to the hopes of some reformist voters who were counting on going to the polls to prevent Ebrahim Raïssi from taking the presidency.
A stir even in the ranks of traditional conservatives
This disqualification of Ali Larijani is for the moment the big surprise of this electoral episode. While remaining a close advisor to the Supreme Guide, Ali Khamenei, Mr. Larijani had moved closer in recent years to President Rouhani. As such, he is hated by the most conservative after he gave unwavering support to the agreement on the nuclear issue, concluded by Hassan Rouhani in 2015 with Washington, London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing and Berlin.
This agreement framed the surveillance of Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for a relaxation of international sanctions and allowed Iran to make its return to the international stage before being unilaterally denounced by former US President Donald Trump. , in 2018. Much of its terms have since been violated by Tehran in retaliation.
Ali Larijani’s disqualification caused a stir even within the ranks of traditional conservatives. “Even the so-called revolutionary groups [les fervents soutiens de la Répulique islamique d’Iran] are now in shock “, explains a conservative analyst in Tehran who prefers to remain anonymous. Ali Larijani’s full brother, Sadegh Larijani, former head of justice (2009-2019) and also a member of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, came out of his reservation and attacked the decision. “I have been working on this Council for almost twenty years, but I have never found its decisions so indefensible [qu’aujourd’hui] “, he apologized in a message posted on Twitter.
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