Candidates on the outs gone from Iran elections

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s election overseers removed potential wild-card candidates from the presidential race Tuesday, blocking a top aide of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a former president.

Their exclusion from the June 14 presidential ballot gives establishment-friendly candidates a clear path to succeed Ahmadinejad, who has lost favor with the ruling clerics after years of power struggles. It also pushes moderate and opposition voices further to the margins as Iran’s leadership faces critical challenges such as international sanctions and talks with world powers over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The official ballot list, announced on state TV, was released after a nearly six-hour delay in which the names were kept under wraps. That raised speculation that authorities allowed some time for appeals by the blackballed candidates and their backers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say in all matters.

But the official slate left off two prominent but divisive figures: former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad protege Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

Those cleared by the candidate-vetting Guardian Council included eight high-profile figures considered loyalists to the ruling Islamic establishment, such as former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili.

Any of the choices are likely to strengthen the relationship between the ruling clerics and presidency after years of political turmoil under Ahmadinejad, who tried to challenge the theocracy’s vast powers to make all major decisions and set key policies.

Iran’s president is expected to convey the ruling clerics’ views on the world stage and not set his own diplomatic agenda.

Mashaei called the decision unfair and said he will appeal to Khamenei. “God willing this will be resolved,” the semiofficial Fars news agency reported late Tuesday.

Rafsanjani did not comment, but his supporters denounced the decision on social media.

Mashaei has been badly tarnished by Ahmadinejad’s feuds with the ruling clerics. Hard-liners denounced Mashaei as part of a “deviant current” that seeks to undermine the country’s Islamic system.

Rafsanjani’s unexpected decision for a comeback bid - 16 years after leaving office - jolted hard-line foes and was cheered by reformists and liberals after years of crackdowns.

Rafsanjani faced a barrage of attacks in the past week from powerful critics who suggested the 78-yearold does not have the stamina for the presidency and is discredited for criticizing the heavy-handed tactics used to crush protests after Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009.

Rafsanjani’s youngest daughter, Faezeh, was released from jail in March after serving a six-month sentence regarding post-election chaos. His middle son, Mahdi, also is to stand trial in coming weeks for a purported role in the riots.

Late Monday, authorities closed down the Tehran headquarters of Rafsanjani’s youth supporters.

Moderates see the former president as a pragmatist who can deal deftly with the West and use his skills as patriarch of a family-run business empire to help repair Iran’s economy, which has been battered by sanctions and mismanagement. Others, even ideological foes, respect his high-profile role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution as the closest confidant of its spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Rafsanjani received apparent support from some influential members of the Assembly of Experts - the only group with the power to dismiss the supreme leader. Rafsanjani was pushed out as the group’s chairman after failing to get enough support to leverage possible concessions from Khamenei on the 2009 post-election clampdowns.

One member, Ayatollah Mohieddin Haeri Shirazi, sent a letter to Khamenei saying that “omitting a prominent figure from the election was incompatible” with giving wide choices to voters, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.

Another assembly member, Ayatollah Mohammad Vaez Mousavi, told the semiofficial ILNA news agency that Rafsanjani’s age is not a weak point and many Iranian leaders “accepted responsibilities when they were quite old.”

Prominent political analyst Saeed Leilaz said the “intensified defamation campaign” suggested worry among hard-liners that Rafsanjani had potential to rally moderates and others and win the election.

“What matters today is who can save the country’s economy,” he said, “Who has a plan to take Iran away from isolation and improve living conditions.” Information for this article was contributed by Ali Akbar Dareini of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 10 on 05/22/2013

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