Ali Motahari, in commenting on Hassan Khomeini’s announcement that the Supreme Leader had asked him not to run for president, said that he believed this was the right decision: “I personally oppose clerics being placed in government executive positions, especially in the Presidency, whether Seyyed Hassan Khomeini or others”. The past four out of five Iranian Presidents have all been clerics.
The Office of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a statement denying claims made by Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday night, that he had asked her to be his Vice-Presidential candidate on his campaign. The statement is as follows: “Ms Faezeh Hashemi's claim that Dr. Ahmadinejad's offered a coalition or first deputy to her are strongly and comprehensively denied”.
In a bizarre turn of events, senior parliamentary Principalist Ahmad Amirabadi announced on Twitter that he was not running for President. On Monday, Amirabadi declared that he was resigning from the Presidium of the Parliament in order to register for the presidential election. Today on Twitter, he apologised saying that what he meant to say was that he was resigning to avoid conflict of interest as he intends to be involved in the campaign in one capacity or another.
Independent candidate Mohammad Gharazi stated in an interview that if elected, he would reduce inflation to zero. Inflation has long been a problem for the Iranian economy, due to sanctions and economic mismanagement. When asked how he would achieve this, Gharazi said that he would “deprive the rent-seekers of political power; the political, economic and nefarious rent-seekers must be pushed back so that the people can take their place, and this is a very simple step”. Gharazi was previously a surprise candidate in the 2013 election who made similar claims then as now.
Prominent female candidate, Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, told Hamshahri that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had asked her to run on his ticket as his Vice-President, but she had refused because of the events of the 2009 Election, particularly as Ahmadinejad had repeatedly insulted her father, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, during that period. Hashemi said that “people might change, but if Mr. Ahmadinejad had changed, he should have first apologized” before approaching her.
Esteemed political scientist, Prof Sadegh Zibakalam of the University of Tehran, outlined his analysis on the four main Principalist candidates: Ebrahim Raisi, Mohsen Rezaei, Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf and Saeed Jalili. Zibakalam argued that Raisi would be a clear favourite as he is the candidate most likely to win at this stage, however it is not clear if he will accept an invitation from the two prominent Princpalist organisations, the Coalition Council and the Unity Council, to run. In Zibakalam’s view, the Principalist choice is between Raisi and Qalibaf at the moment, and other candidates like Saeed Mohammad, Ali Nikzad, Ezzatollah Zarghami and Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh, stand no chance of being supported by the Principalist bloc. For Saeed Mohammad, the problem is that he is too much like a young Ahmadinejad, and the Principalist camp of 2021 is not going to make the same choice as the did in 2005. However, Zibakalam added that if Raisi does not run, Saeed Mohammad would still pose a threat to whomever the Princpalists chose, effectively splitting the conservative vote.
Dr Abdullah Haji Sadeghi, who represents the #SupremeLeader in the IRGC, today said that "the armed forces do not enter politics in any way" and the task of the IRGC was to protect the revolution and the Islamic system, and make our enemies of aware of that". In what is clearly an attack on #SaeedMohammad, Sadeghi singled out Commander Javani for praise. Javani recently accused Mohammad of being fired from the IRGC for bringing the corps into disrepute. These statements were published in Fars, an IRGC linked newspaper that has so far been hostile to Saeed Mohammad.
Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, yesterday announced that he was resigning from the Presidium of the Parliament to run for President. The Presidium is a 12-person body of parliamentary members elected annually by their peers to manage parliamentary business. Amirabadi is a former officer in the IRGC and a prominent Principalist.
Independent candidate and economist Hassan Sobhani stated today that while he had been against subsidies in the past, he was also opposed to eliminating them. However, Sobhani said it was irresponsible how some candidates made promises of subsidies to win the popular vote: “the people’s economic fragility should not be abused in order to achieve the power”. The government has historically subsidised many daily items, such as bread and fuel, and the removal of these subsidies has caused violent unrest, most recently in late 2019. Sobhani’s comments can be interpreted as a swipe at other candidates, notably election favourite Ebrahim Raisi, who in 2017 promised an increase in subsidies as part of his election campaign.
Laleh Eftekhari, a former member of Parliament and member of the Women’s Advisory Council in the Principalist Unity Council, yesterday stated that among Iranian women, Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi had the qualifications to be President, having served in the cabinet previously but that “she herself must be willing to take this step” before Principalists would consider supporting her candidacy. In the same interview, Eftekhari expressed support for Ebrahim Raisi as a unifying candidate.