2017 Iran Election [OFFICIAL THREAD]

[Aabiss_Shakari]

The Iranian Interior Ministry has released the final list of candidates qualified to run in the forthcoming presidential election.

Iran’s Interior Ministry on Thursday night gave the following list of eligible candidates (in alphabetical order) vetted by the Guardian Council.

• Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim
• Mostafa Hashemi-Taba
• Es'haq Jahangiri
• Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf
• Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi
• Hassan Rouhani

The vetting body was examining the qualifications of more than 1,600 candidates who registered to run for president for days.

"We held the final session on examining the qualifications of the presidential election nominees today and fortunately reached a conclusion after five days of numerous sessions,” the council's spokesman, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, said before releasing the final list.

Here is a brief summary of the candidates’ backgrounds:

Aqa-Mirsalim is a member of the Expediency Council. He used to be a senior aide to former President Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and an ex-minister of culture and Islamic guidance, and a former caretaker of the Presidential Office.

Hashemi-Taba was a vice president under former Presidents Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, a former minister of industries, and the former head of the Sports Organization.

Jahangiri, who currently serves as the first vice president, used to be the minister of mines and metals under Khatami, the governor of Isfahan, and a parliamentarian.

Qalibaf, the mayor of Tehran, was a former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ Air Force, an ex-chief of the national police, and a former commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbya Air Defense Base (formerly known as Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters). 

Raeisi is the chief custodian of Astan Quds Razavi, the organization managing the affairs of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (PBUH), the eighth Shia Imam, in the city of Mashhad. Besides performing in other positions, he used to function as the attorney general of Iran’s Administrative Court of Justice.

Rouhani, the incumbent Iranian president, is a member of the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts, which appoints the country’s leader. The former posts he used to fill include membership of Majlis (Iranian Parliament) and headship of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

The qualified candidates can now start election campaigning until 8 a.m. May 18, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Disqualified among the high-profile aspirants were former two-time President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his former aide Hamid Baqaei.

Earlier this month, the Iranian Judiciary spokesman said lawsuits filed against Ahmadinejad and Baqaei with regard to administrative violations were open and no final verdicts had been still given on them.

Speaking to reporters on April 16, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said the lawsuits were filed against Ahmadinejad in the capacity of president and have not yet led to the delivery of a verdict.

A number of lawsuits have been filed with Iran's judicial officials after Ahmadinejad’s term in office concluded among which cases of malfeasance are more prominent.

Out of major cases filed against the former president are three complaints by the Iranian Parliament’s Article 90 Commission.

TO WHOM YOU WANT TO SEE AS PRESIDENT OF IRAN?

 

[hasanhh]

l cannot express a preference because l do not live in lran.

Yet what l do like is -unlike the USA- there is not a "clown" among them.

[Sirius_Bright]

From what was apparent through 2 terms of Ahmadinejad, he could have been a perfect candidate. 

[Marbles]

On what grounds was Ahmedinejad disqualified from running?

 

Edited April 22, 2017 by Marbles

[Al Hadi]

6 hours ago, Marbles said:

On what grounds was Ahmedinejad disqualified from running?

 

I think it was the lawsuits against them.

[Ali924]

Wish the best for Iran.

[Mansur Bakhtiari]

23 minutes ago, Al Hadi said:

I think it was the lawsuits against them.

 

6 hours ago, Marbles said:

On what grounds was Ahmedinejad disqualified from running?

 

 

6 hours ago, Lover of Ahlulbait (ams) said:

From what was apparent through 2 terms of Ahmadinejad, he could have been a perfect candidate. 

He is disliked in Iran, that is the problem. Iran is growing more and more liberal, so Syed Khamenei must have used his reasoning, and instead of picking a candidate who is liked by himself and the conservative, let this election be more centrist. Jahangiri and Rouhani are very centrist. I think that does reflect Iran though.

Just like when Khamenei allowed Mohammad Khatami to run. It was obvious he disliked him, even Khatami admits that, but for the sake of keeping peace in Iran, and having a democratic system, he let Khatami run. 

Ahmadinejad also apparently managed the economy badly. Poverty and inflation went up. Poverty went up I believe 5%, though inflation almost tripled.

[repenter-gone4awhile]

Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi is best!!!! Everyone else on that list is horrible. 

[Al Hadi]

1 hour ago, repenter said:

Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi is best!!!! Everyone else on that list is horrible. 

Interesting I was thinking Raesi is good too I wouldn't say the rest are horrible though. He looks religiously speaking the most qualified. I might of heard somewhere he could be a good candidate for next waleeh al faqeeh.

Edited April 23, 2017 by Al Hadi

[guest102317]

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

 

السلام علیکم

 

The only chances are between Rouhani (or Jahangiri in the unlikely decision by Rouhani not to stand till the end) and Qalibaf. As of now, Rouhani has the edge. Two more presidential debates to go.

 

As for Ahmadinejad, he was not disqualified for acting unlawfully during his presidency, since he has not been found guilty of that charge. Nor is it because of his unpopularity. Ahmadinejad still has a large support-base in the country. Nor should it have been because of 'defying' the leader since the leader only advised him not to run. So why disqualified? The spokesperson of the Guardian Council refused on television to disclose the reasons for why he was disqualified. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Guardian Council is not obliged to give reasons for disqualifying anyone. That's just the way it is.

If you'd like to rationalise it, you could say it is because he has cases pending in court. But those cases have been pending for four years. Delayed justice is bad justice but nobody likes the judiciary anyway. Both sides of the spectrum accuse it of serving vested interests.

Anyway, the spokesperson for the judiciary denied the claim that just because someone has pending cases they are automatically disqualified. So this is neither here nor there.

What's embarrassing is that the people most hostile to Ahmadinejad today adored him only 7 years ago and defended him against critics by saying Ahmadinejad was a man of honour and justice. But this is the fate of presidents in Iran. If they don't become supreme leaders when they leave office, they get branded traitors to the cause. Rouhani is already portrayed as a traitor. So far, no exceptions.

We have given many martyrs. May the blood of martyrs bloom in the desert!

و علیکم السلام

Edited April 30, 2017 by Jebreil

[Laayla]

 

Bismehe Ta3ala,

Assalam Alikum 

Iranians:  Who do you want to win?  

 

May. 09, 2017 | 12:11 AM

Rouhani calls rivals violent extremists

TEHRAN: Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani launched a scathing attack on his conservative election rivals Monday, saying their era of “violence and extremism” was over.

The semiofficial ISNA news agency said Rouhani did not name any of his five election rivals in the campaign speech, but appeared to be referring to Ebrahim Raisi, who is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“The people of Iran shall once again announce that they don’t approve of those who only called for executions and jail throughout the last 38 years,” he told a packed stadium in the western city of Hamedan, referring to the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

“We’ve entered this election to tell those practicing violence and extremism that your era is over.”

Rouhani also offered rare, if veiled, criticism of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, saying those who use “public funds and money that is given for the security of the people” should not spread “hopelessness.” The Guard is believed to support Raisi.

He also referred to a charitable foundation managed by Raisi, which controls large endowments and business conglomerates, asking whether it had ever paid taxes.

Sunday, Raisi had said the charity was exempt from paying taxes by order of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s 1979 revolution and its first supreme leader. Raisi said that what the charity provides to the poor is equivalent to four times the amount of taxes it would pay.

Rouhani faces a tough battle for re-election on May 19 as conservative opponents attack his failure to revive Iran’s stagnant economy.

Analysts say his surprise victory in 2013 was largely down to his promise of improved civil liberties, and he has again made this a dominant theme of his campaign this year.

“Your logic is prohibition and nothing else. Our young people have chosen the path of freedom,” he told his opponents.

Rouhani raised an old threat, often leveled at hard-liners, that they want to segregate men and women on public footpaths.

“You don’t know them, I know them. They wanted to create segregated pavements the same way they issued a directive for sex segregation in their work place,” Rouhani said in a swipe against one of his main challengers, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who reportedly tried to split the sexes in his city council offices.

The allegation was dismissed by one of his opponents.

“This ridiculous and repetitive accusation fools no one,” said leading conservative Ali Reza Zakani in a tweet. “By contrast, the economic wall between this government of money-makers and people’s empty plates is perfectly understood,” Zakani wrote.

Rouhani’s government has tamed rampant inflation but failed to kick-start the wider economy despite a nuclear deal with world powers that ended many sanctions.

Rouhani has therefore pushed his liberal credentials, attacking the security services for interfering in people’s lives, and posing with women wearing loose and colorful headscarves that are still opposed by hard-liners despite becoming commonplace in the wealthier parts of Tehran.

He is due to address a women’s rally Tuesday.

Rouhani also attacked the continued detention of reformist politicians such as Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest since 2011 for his part in protests two years earlier. Mousavi is considered a Rouhani supporter.

“Why have you confined to their houses our dear personalities who were of service to this nation ... who showed Iran’s real image to the world? Under what law?” he asked.

“We will go to the ballot boxes on May 19 to bring back our noble men to society,” he said, although Rouhani made this promise in 2013 to no avail.

 

M3 Salamah, FE AMIN Allah 

 

UNDER IRANIAN SUBFORUM, oh wait there isn’t one.  

[Guest silasun]

It's embarressing how low somebody could go in their attempts to get re-elected.

Oh well, he's apparently a religious cleric so it's all cool... 

[Reza]

Election coming on May 19 --- only 3 days from now.

[Toby]

Salam aleikum

we can all make nadhr and read surah al-fath with the niyah that the best candidate for the presidential elections will win and get the most votes (also the best candidates for the local concil/city concil/local government/communal elections in Iran) https://quran.com/48 

http://parsquran.com/data/show.php?sura=48&ayat=0&user=far&lang=far

[Toby]

Salam aleikum

Sure Ya Sin

https://quran.com/36

http://www.parsquran.com/data/show.php?sura=36&ayat=1&user=far&lang=far&tran=1

[Laayla]

Bismehe Ta3ala,

Assalam Alikum Brothers

@repenter

@baradar_jackson

Why is Rouhani and Raisi at each other's necks?

M3 Salamah, FE AMIN Allah 

[repenter-gone4awhile]

16 minutes ago, Laayla said:

Bismehe Ta3ala,

Assalam Alikum Brothers

@repenter

@baradar_jackson

Why is Rouhani and Raisi at each other's necks?

M3 Salamah, FE AMIN Allah 

Because Raisi has been a prosecutor, and the clerical court prosecutor. He is also a hardcore Hezbollahi. Meaning he has lots of dirt on Rouhani and Rouhani knows this.

[Laayla]

Thank you akhi .  Makes sense then if Rouhani is putting out a message then for not having the RG and Basij involved.

Is the news accurate below?

Reuters

 

May. 17, 2017 | 08:40 PM

Rouhani warns Revolutionary Guards not to meddle in Iran election

BEIRUT: President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday urged Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia under its control not to meddle in Friday's presidential election, in a rare warning that underscored rising political tensions.

The Guards, who oversee an economic empire worth billions of dollars, are seldom criticized in public, but the pragmatist Rouhani is locked in an unexpectedly tight race against hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who is believed to have their support.

"We just have one request: for the Basij and the Revolutionary Guards to stay in their own place for their own work," Rouhani said in a campaign speech in the city of Mashad, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA).

Rouhani reinforced his appeal by quoting the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, who he said had warned the armed forces against interfering in politics.

Suspicions that the Guards and Basij falsified election results in favor of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to nationwide protests in 2009. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds were arrested, according to human rights groups, in the largest unrest in the history of the Islamic Republic.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, said on Wednesday that maintaining security was a top concern for the election. He also denounced the heated rhetoric of the campaign as "unworthy", in a thinly-veiled rebuke of Rouhani, who is seeking a second four-year term.

ACCUSATIONS

Rouhani, 68, and Raisi, a 56-year-old protege of the supreme leader, have traded charges of graft and brutality on live television with an open vehemence unseen in the near-40-year history of the Islamic Republic.

Raisi has accused Rouhani of being corrupt and of mismanaging the economy. Rouhani, who wants to open up Iran to the West and ease social restrictions within the country, has responded by accusing Raisi, who served on the judiciary for several years, of human rights violations.

Both men deny the other's accusations.

Raisi developed a close relationship with senior members of the Revolutionary Guards while at the judiciary and has their backing, according to Mohsen Sazegara, a founding member of the Revolutionary Guards who is now a U.S.-based dissident.

"Raisi is the Revolutionary Guards' candidate," he said.

The Guards are looking beyond Friday's election and see Raisi as a possible candidate to be the next supreme leader, analysts say.

Although Khamenei, 77, is guarded about his political preferences, he also appears to back Raisi both as a presidential candidate and possible successor.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2017/May-17/406198-rouhani-warns-revolutionary-guards-not-to-meddle-in-iran-election.ashx

Edited May 17, 2017 by Laayla

[baradar_jackson]

The problem with statements like that is that it assumed the IRGC or Basij have ever interfered in elections. (they haven't)

 

Overall, it was more of a political ploy to gain votes.

 

I really really hate electoral politics and I hate discussing it, especially with family. It kills brain cells.

[ChattingwithShias]

 

[hasanhh]

Thursday morning.

l saw an interview of lranian women supporters of Raeisi who accused Rouhani of "being too Western".  ???? Why do they have this perception?????

[guest102317]

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

السلام علیکم

 

Rouhani is the likeliest candidate to win. If turnout is massive, he will win.

و علیکم السلام

[hasanhh]

Polling Stations in 102 countries

55 in the US

22 in lraq

21 in the UAE

12 in the UK

__  in KSA

[Mohamed1993]

11 minutes ago, hasanhh said:

Polling Stations in 102 countries

55 in the US

22 in lraq

21 in the UAE

12 in the UK

__  in KSA

[Pearl178]

On 4/23/2017 at 7:24 PM, repenter said:

Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi is best!!!! Everyone else on that list is horrible. 

YES! 

[Shiawarrior313]

Looks like Iranians are choosing the westerners. They're walking the path of the Kufis. They deserve the future that awaits them.

[guest102317]

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

السلام علیکم

 

Like I predicted on this thread, Rouhani won. He won even better than last time.

Whoever thought Raisi had a decent chance was deluding themselves.

Non-Iranians who care about the Islamic Republic's politics need to acquaint themselves better with the history and contemporary dynamics of the country. Especially since the general political direction of Iran will have a long-term effect on the politics of the Shi'i world. My experience here on SC is that members have an inaccurate understanding of how things were, how things are, and how things will be decided in Iran. The comment before my own is a stubborn example.

و علیکم السلام

 

[Pearl178]

4 hours ago, Shiawarrior313 said:

Looks like Iranians are choosing the westerners. They're walking the path of the Kufis. They deserve the future that awaits them.

It's sad really. 

[repenter-gone4awhile]

الخیر فی ما وقع

[Pearl178]

6 minutes ago, repenter said:

الخیر فی ما وقع

تتوقع المستقبل بيكون سيء للشعب الإيراني؟ 

[repenter-gone4awhile]

46 minutes ago, Pearl178 said:

تتوقع المستقبل بيكون سيء للشعب الإيراني؟ 

لا

[Reza]

Incumbents usually win a second term. That's how it plays out in most countries. 

[hasanhh]

On ‎5‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 9:03 PM, hasanhh said:

Polling Stations in 102 countries

55 in the US

22 in lraq

21 in the UAE

12 in the UK

__  in KSA

Zero in Canada.  So thousands could not vote. Excuse: no diplomatic relations ... uhhh, but that was not a problem in the USA --we are more democratic than Canada.

 

On ‎5‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 10:27 PM, baradar_jackson said:

The problem with statements like that is that it assumed the IRGC or Basij have ever interfered in elections. (they haven't)

 

Overall, it was more of a political ploy to gain votes.

 

I really really hate electoral politics and I hate discussing it, especially with family. It kills brain cells.

A lot of emotionalism is involved. Once someone gets "attached" to a candidate it is 'hard' to change --even for ourselves.

According to Fars, 56.4 Million adults were eligible to vote. ~41.2 Million voted.

Rouhani has ~23 votes for every 16 votes his 3 rivals received.

[mesbah]

Seemingly, It takes some other thousand years for the people of Wilaya, to gain enough Basira to fully counter Taghut and Taghuti people.

Shia is not a race/nationality-based faith, Shia means Wilaya and Wilaya means hate for Taghut and its alliance.

[ChattingwithShias]

6 hours ago, Jebreil said:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

السلام علیکم

 

Like I predicted on this thread, Rouhani won. He won even better than last time.

Whoever thought Raisi had a decent chance was deluding themselves.

Non-Iranians who care about the Islamic Republic's politics need to acquaint themselves better with the history and contemporary dynamics of the country. Especially since the general political direction of Iran will have a long-term effect on the politics of the Shi'i world. My experience here on SC is that members have an inaccurate understanding of how things were, how things are, and how things will be decided in Iran. The comment before my own is a stubborn example.

و علیکم السلام

 

I agree with this comment. Shiachat's view of Iran and Iranians is generally skewed from its reality.