On Friday morning, the polling stations opened in Iran. The country’s 61.5 million eligible voters have until midnight to cast their vote on who will take over the presidency for the next four years – the second most powerful after head of state Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The election is being held to replace President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on 19 May. Of 80 candidates who wanted to stand as presidential candidates, six were approved by the Guardian Council. Two candidates withdrew on Thursday. Thus, the race is between four men, where only one of them is referred to as reform-friendly. THE CHALLENGER: Masoud Pezeshkian is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war and belongs to the country’s Azerbaijani minority. Photo: Majid Asgaripour / Reuters Steady in the final sprint It is doctor Masoud Pezeshkian, who in recent weeks has made a mistake in the measurements. Now the figures show that he is leading the race with 25 percent support. Cardiac surgeon Pezeshkian opens for detente with the West, economic reforms, and wants to ease the strict hijab laws. THE ESTABLISHED: Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf has repeatedly run for the presidency without success. Today he is Speaker of Iran’s National Assembly. Photo: Majid Asgaripour / Reuters He faces tough competition from Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, who was measured at 23.4 percent earlier this week. The former Tehran mayor and ex-commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a well-known political figure. He is remembered, among other things, from his time as the country’s police chief during the student uprisings in 2003, when he allegedly gave orders to shoot with sharpshooters, writes the New York Times. In the election campaign, he promised to streamline the public bureaucracy and criticized Iran’s political leadership for how they have handled the oil sanctions from the West. Reuters Said JaliliSaeed Jalili is described as ultra-conservative. He has been nicknamed “The Living Martyr” after losing a leg in the Iran-Iraq war. He is considered to be the candidate closest to Ayatollah Khamenei, and is referred to as a hardliner on both domestic and foreign issues. He has been measured at 21.5 percent in the last week. AP Mostafa PourmohammadiThe only cleric in the election campaign. He served as interior minister from 2005 to 2008. He is accused of having played a central role in the execution of hundreds of political prisoners in the Evin prison in Tehran in 1988. He himself has profiled himself as the only candidate who can stand up to Donald Trump . Pourmohammadi has received less than 5 percent in the latest opinion polls. AFP Amirhossein Ghazizadeh HashemiResigned. AFP How powerful is the president? If none of the candidates receives more than 50 percent support in the first election round, the two most popular candidates will meet for a new election round on 5 July. With the reform-friendly Pezeshkian flying high in the polls, there are several who are wondering if he will be able to change Iran, if he will gain presidential power. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam heads the Iran Human Rights website. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB No, says the Iranian-Norwegian human rights activist Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. – No important decisions are taken by the president or the national assembly, he says. – The only function of the presidential election in Iran is to give the regime legitimacy. The most important thing for the regime is that people go out and vote. They will use that for all it’s worth. Mohammad M. Izadi is a Middle East researcher at the University of Oslo. Photo: UiO Middle East researcher at UiO Mohammad M. Izadi disagrees. He admits that the country’s supreme leader Khamenei always has veto power, but Iranian presidents can still make a mark – If you look at who has been elected president throughout history and what those periods have been like, they have been very different, says Izadi. – Some have turned the country westwards, some have turned the country away from the West, some have relaxed social laws, some have ruled with a heavy hand. POWERFUL: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has great power in Iran. Here he arrives at the polling station in Tehran on Friday. Photo: Vahid Salemi / AP Low participation expected An analysis in Foreign Policy describes a political system in Iran that is dominated by conservative “hardliners”, with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a strong power factor. Whether Pezeshkian manages to navigate this landscape is uncertain. – His candidacy may ultimately prove to do more for electoral support than lead to real political changes, writes the American news website. An Iranian man fills out his ballot in a polling station in Tehran. Photo: Vahid Salemi / AP The Ministry of the Interior is scheduled to announce the turnout at midnight, but expectations are low. The trend is downward in the last two elections: 48 percent in the presidential election in 2021 and 41 percent in the parliamentary election earlier this year. On a crash course, Pezeshkian differs from the other candidates, among other things, in his view of the hijab. Today, the head covering is mandatory for women under Iranian penal code. Offenses can result in a fine or prison sentence. – The other candidates say that this is Iranian law, Islamic law and Iranian custom, says Middle East researcher Izadi. – Pezeshkian says that he cannot find in the Koran that hijab is required. Thus, women cannot be forced to use it. HIJAB CHOICE: The presidential candidates have different views on women’s clothing. These three women had to choose between them on Friday. Photo: Majid Asgaripour / Reuters The matter is politically heated. Thousands took to the streets in several cities in Iran when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police in 2022. The authorities responded by executing several of the activists. Izadi also points to differences between Pezeskhian and Khamenei in their views on economics and foreign policy. – They are on a crash course there. If Pezeskhian becomes president, he will have a hard time. Published 28.06.2024, at 22.39 Updated 28.06.2024, at 23.27
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