Three Already Running for President

March 4, 2013

Garrett Nada

            Three individuals have already declared their candidacy for president. On March 4, the Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei, added his name to the list of candidates. Elections are scheduled for mid-June. Candidates must be vetted by the Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 religious jurists.

            Mohsen Rezaie — former chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps— is a conservative who unsuccessfully ran for parliament in 1999, and for the presidency in 2005 and 2009.  He finished third in 2009 with 1.7 percent of the vote, far behind Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi.

            Former Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki announced his candidacy on February 26. He served as foreign minister for five years, until President Ahmadinejad dismissed him in December 2010. Mottaki, also a conservative, is an ally of Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larjiani —Ahmadinejad’s rival and another potential presidential candidate.

            But hard-line conservatives may rally around one strong candidate to not split the vote. On March 3, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's principal foreign policy adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, reportedly announced a "principlist" (fundamentalist) coalition to contest the presidential election. The other two members are parliament member Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel and mayor of Tehran Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf. One of the three will likely run with the support of the other two.

            Ali Fallahian, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a former intelligence minister, has also announced his candidacy. He ran unsuccessfully in 2001. In his February 19 announcement, Fallahian seemed to suggest that he would stop Iran’s uranium-enrichment program if elected. “Enough of nuclear. We don't want nuclear enrichment, we have already mastered its knowledge,” he claimed. Both Fallahian and Rezaei are on Interpol’s wanted list for suspected connections to the 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish center bombing. The following are excerpts from remarks by the three candidates on the upcoming election.

Mohsen Rezaei
            “…I will participate in the forthcoming presidential election. I announce it in this city [Divandarreh] in order to explain my approach for resolving the country’s problems, above all unemployment and inflation…”
            “In the coming years, we will not only get rid of [international] sanctions [against Iran], but we will also bring prosperity to the Iranian economy and that is quite possible…”
            “Currently, the main problem facing people is the economic issue and economic development should be accomplished as well as political development… Today income is the people's basis of life, and we must implement plans to reduce the cost of living and raise their income levels.” March 4, in an announcement in Kurdistan Province
 
Manoucher Mottaki
            “I will propose a plan in line with the Supreme Leader's beliefs and the people's demands so that in a government with the name of the Islamic Republic, the president would be more than a sympathizer for the people, and give something more than a future promise...” February 26, in remarks posted on his website
 
Ali Fallahian
            “Actually, I didn’t intend to become a candidate for the next election. But I have received many requests from Iranians regarding this. Keeping the inflation and unemployment rates low are among my top priorities. Also the number of Iranian students has been increased dramatically, but most educated people are still unemployed. I will introduce new solutions to eradicate such problems in the country…”
            “Enough of nuclear. We don't want nuclear enrichment, we have already mastered its knowledge…”
            “Most residents of the Middle East region believe that U.S. military bases must be removed from this area because they carry insecurities to societies. So we will work with the U.S. government to eliminate such bases… Given the many offers made by the Americans at different occasions, and the U.S. need for Iran’s support to create stability in the region — including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Tunisia, and Egypt — I see a bright horizon for the ties between Iran and the United States” February 19, to reporters in Khorasan province