A statement attributed to high-profile Reformist Mohammad Reza Aref is being circulated online which says he has withdrawn his candidacy. Aref served as First Vice-President in Mohammad Khatami’s government, but is rumoured to have fallen out with his former comrade over Khatami’s preference to endorse non-Reformist candidates on the Reformist ticket. Aref himself was pressured by Khatami to step aside for Rouhani in the 2013 election, which Aref did unwillingly.
This afternoon, President Rouhani issued a directive to the Minister of the Interior (whose department overlooks the electoral process) to follow existing laws and not adhere to the conditions added by the Guardian Council last Wednesday. Among those conditions was an age restriction of candidates to between 40 and 75, which would exclude Rouhani’s Minister of Communication, Mohammad-Javad Azari-Jahromi, from running. A few hours later, the Guardian Council responded on social media through a spokesman, stating that “the decision of the Guardian Council regarding the conditions of the registrants of the Presidential elections is binding on the Ministry of Interior”.
Read more about Rouhani at Hamshahrionline.
Read more about the Guardian Council’s response at MashreghNews
Speaking on the JCPOA, President Hassan Rouhani said that the United States and European countries have agreed to list sanctions effective immediately, without elaborating on the specifics. He added that the negotiations were ongoing, but only in order to sort out some specific details of the agreement.
Iran’s public broadcaster, the IRIB, will limit live broadcasts of President Rouhani due to the sensitivity around the election atmosphere. After two days of negotiation with President Rouhani, the IRIB said it will permit only three types of live broadcast: Rouhani addressing the Cabinet, Presidential announcements at the COVID headquarters and “Inauguration” Thursdays (where the President announces large national projects).
In a continuation of the leaked Zarif files saga, a senior advisor to President Rouhani and the head of the Centre for Presidential Strategic Studies, Hesamuddin Ashna, has resigned after a number of media outlets identified him as the source of the leak. Ashna has denied he was responsible, and has since made cryptic comments referring to the 1972 comedy film Hakim Bashi, and vaguely adding that the authorities were following a line of inquiry other than him. A number of media outlets have speculated that the authorities were investigating 15-20 people regarding the theft and leaking of the audio.
Conservative candidate Saeed Jalili, in reflecting on the Rouhani administration, said that its shortcoming was its focus on one issue, the JCPOA, in which it did not succeed. Jalili added that if the officials are unable to counter the sanctions against Iran, then it is inevitable that the burden will be on the people, which Jalili said is unacceptable.
In response to a question about most of Rouhani’s supporter base being Reformists, candidate Mostafa Kavakebian stated that he had no regrets about voting for the President as a Reformist, even when he had been an unsuccessful candidate running against Rouhani. Kavakebian added that this was normal for Reformists: “When our party has a candidate who isn’t approved, we seek out the [approved] candidate that is better than the others; at that time, we recognised it was Rouhani”.
Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Zare Foumani of the People’s Reform Party announced that he will nominate for President, adding that “we supported Mr Rouhani in 2013, which was wrong, and we apologize to the people and hope they will accept our apology”. The People’s Reform Party was led by Mehdi Karroubi until 2009, after which Zare Foumani, who did not dispute the election result, became leader.
Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian stated in an interview that he would not step down as candidate in favour of former speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani. Pezeshkian’s comments reflect a controversy among Reformists about whether Reformists should stand aside to support moderate candidates. In 2013, the Reformist candidate Mohammad-Reza Aref stood down under pressure from senior Reformist who back moderate candidate Hassan Rouhani. In this election, non-Reformists like Ali Larijani and Mohammad-Javad Zarif are being considered as the Reformist choice, which has renewed the split in the movement.
Masoumeh Ebtekar, the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, on the 42nd anniversary of the referendum creating the Islamic Republic stated on Twitter that then as now the Iranian people should be involved in all state decisions. Adding that the Presidential Elections will be another referendum, Ebtekar was supporting President Rouhani’s repeated statements that deadlocks in government should be resolved through referendum.