Iranian presidential election of 2005 will take place on June 17, 2005. Mohammad Khatami, the present President of Iran, will need to step down on August 2, 2005, after serving his maximal two consecutive four-year terms according to the Islamic Republic's constitution .

Schedule

The schedule of the election has been decided between the Ministry of Interior and the Guardian Council. The election may continue into a runoff race, which will take place at least a week later than the first round of elections, most probably on June 24, 2005. The first three suggestions by the Ministry, for May 13, May 20, and June 10, 2005, had been rejected by the Council. The Ministry has mentioned that it is concerned that an election later than May 20 may collide with the final exams of the elementary schools and high schools. On the same date, mid-term Majlis elections for Gachsaran , Garmsar , Ghazvin, Ilam, Iranshahr , Jolfa, Marand, Sarbaz , and Shiraz will take place together with the runoff elections of Tehran for the Iranian Majlis election of 2004.

Candidates

Very few people have confirmed that they are running for the post of president, and the registration will only begin on May, 2005 or possibly later.

The candidates must first be approved by the Guardian Council before being put to public vote, and there is a chance that some of the possible reformist candidates won't win the approval, specially Behzad Nabavi or Mohammad Reza Khatami, who were rejected by the Council in the parliamentary elections of 2004. There are many who expect Mostafa Moeen to be disapproved as well. Also, there is a very high probability of rejection of women, because of an ambiguous term ("rejaal", رجال) in the Constitution of Iran, which is a requirement for presidential candidates which may be interpreted as either "men" or "famous people". The Guardian Council, who is also the official interpreter of the constitution, has mentioned on previous elections that the restriction has not been considered in depth yet, since according to the Council's opinion there were no women registered to run for presidency who fulfilled the other requirements of the constitution; but still, the Council believes that the requirement of rejaal would not match women.

There was discussion of a new law proposed in the Majlis, restricting the maximum age of the candidates for the presidential elections. This was widely seen as an attempt to limit participation Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mehdi Karroubi. The attempt failed with no proposal appearing.

There exist many contradicting reports about the possible candidates and their confirmations and/or declinations. The list of certain and possible candidates include:

• Trans-party:
  • Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council and a former President of Iran, who may win the support of certain parties from both of the wings, but is considered to be leaned towards the conservatives more than towards the reformists. Ironically, the reformist alliance is considering him as a possible candidate of theirs more than the conservative alliance. He is invited to run for president by Executives of Construction Party (reformist), Islamic Civilization Party , Islamic Labour Party (conservative), Jam'iyat-e Vafaadaaraan-e Enghelaab-e Eslaami (conservative), Moderation and Development Party (conservative), and Workers' House (reformist) as well as over 40 parties across the whole spectrum of positions.

• Reformists:
  • Confirmed to run
    • Akbar Alami , Majlis representative
    • Mehdi Karroubi, former Majlis Speaker, Secretary General of Militant Clerics Society (MCS), supported by MCS, Islamic Association of Engineers , and Majma'-e Gorooh-haa-ye Khat-te Emam .
    • Mostafa Kavakebian , member of Democracy Party (hezb-e mardomsālāri)
    • Mohsen Mehralizadeh, Vice-President and Head of National Sports Organization, member of IIPF. Mehralizadeh has announced that he will be running for the post on behalf of the Iranian younger generation, but not if the reformist alliance reaches consensus on another candidate.
    • Mostafa Moeen, former Minister of Science, Research and Technology, supported by Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) and Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (MIRO). Confirmed to run on December 29, 2004. IIPF, an influential reformist party in Iran, has mentioned that they won't support any presidential candidate outside the party, except Mousavi and Moeen. Since Mousavi has declined to run, they are currently supporting Moeen, whom they claim to be the most probable candidate to win the approval of other parties in the reformist alliance. Some conservative Majlis representatives, including Mehdi Kouchakzadeh and Teymour Ali Asgari , have asked for the Guardian Council's rejection of Moeen. Moeen has announced that he will choose Mohammad Reza Khatami as his First Vice President if he is elected.
  • Uncertain:
    • Mohammad Reza Aref, First Vice President
    • Ebrahim Asgharzadeh , former member of Tehran city council
    • Eshagh Jahangiri , minister of industries and mines
    • Mostafa Mohaghghegh-Damad
    • Mohammad Ali Najafi , former Minister of Education, member of Executives of Construction Party (ECP)
    • Bizhan Namdar-Zangeneh , Minister of Petroleum, member of ECP
    • Abdollah Noori, former Minister of Interior, very improbable because of his convicted status when he was the manager in charge of the reformist newspaper Khordad which resulted in him leaving politics
    • Mohsen Rohami , Lawyer
    • Sadegh Tabatabaee , brother-in-law of Ahmad Khomeini
  • Declined:
    • Safdar Hosseini, Minister of Economy and Finance Affair, member of IIPF
    • Hadi Khamenei , member of Society of Forces Following the Line of the Imam on December 6, 2004
    • Mohammad Reza Khatami, former Majlis Vice Speaker, Secretary General of IIPF
    • Hassan Khomeini , grandson of Ruhollah Khomeini
    • Mir-Hossein Mousavi, former Prime Minister, declined on October 12, 2004
    • Mohammad Mousavi-Khoiniha , member of MCS, declined on November 21, 2004
    • Behzad Nabavi, former Majlis Vice Speaker, member of MIRO
    • Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Spokesman of Government, member of IIPF
• Conservatives:
  • Confirmed to run:
    • Rafat Bayat , Majlis representative from Zanjan, she is a member of conservative caucus in parliament and on March 30 she stated that she will run independently, not supported by any significant party in the conservative alliance. [1]
    • Ali Akbar Velayati, an Adviser to the Supreme Leader and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, supported inside the conservative alliance by Islamic Coalition Party (ICP). Some members of ABII have unofficially noted that they will not support Velayati for the presidential elections even if the conservative alliance elects him internally, and may run Ahmadinezhad against him. He confoimed that he does not accept candidacy from conservative alliance and will run independently.
  • Being considered by the alliance:
    • Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad , Mayor of Tehran, member of Islamic Society of Engineers (ISE), supported inside the conservative alliance by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (ABII). On February 2, 2005 he said he would not seek for nomination, but he is still under consideration from (ABII).
    • Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Head of Police (niroo-ye entezaami)
    • Ali Larijani, Supreme Leader's representative in National Security Council and a former director of IRIB, supported inside the conservative alliance by the ISE, considered to be the second choice of ABII.
    • Mohsen Rezai , Secretary of Expediency Discernment Council
    • Ahmad Tavakkoli, Majlis representative and Director of Majlis Research Center , former presidential candidate. If Tavakkoli runs, it will be the first time he is running for presidency not against an incumbent president.
  • Uncertain:
    • Habibollah Asgar-Owladi , member of ICP
    • Abdollah Jaspi , director of Islamic Azad University , member of ICP
    • Hossein Mirmohammad-Sadeghi , former speaker of Judiciary Branch
    • Mohammad Hadi Nezhad-Hosseinian , former Minister of Heavy Industries
    • Hassan Rowhani , Secretary of National Security Council
    • Reza Zavare'i , former member of Guardian Council, invited to run by Chekaad-e Daaneshjooyaan-e Mosalmaan
  • Declined:
    • Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, Speaker of Majlis, he declined his activities for election and said that he will try to re-ally conservatives for election.
    • Mohammad Javad Larijani, Director of IPM. He strongly endorses his brother Ali Larijani for presidency.

• Independents:
  • Confirmed to run
    • Iraj Hesabi , son of Professor Mahmoud Hesabi , President of Hesabi Foundation , and the author of Professor of Love (on his father).
    • Ebrahim Yazdi, former Minister of Foreign affairs in the Interim Government of 1979, secretary general of Freedom Movement Party . On March 9 Freedom Movement Party officialy announced his nomination. [2]
  • Uncertain:
    • Nasser Hejazi, former national football player
    • Azam Taleghani , daughter of Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani
  • Declined:
    • Shirin Ebadi, winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, declined on January 2, 2005, despite support among some independent groups and parties, which are usually called pro-Human rights

See also

• Politics of Iran

External links

• ISNA report on Mousavi's declination, reported by Karroubi (in Persian)
• Situation on December 6
• Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker

Sources

• Iran newspaper on the elections atmosphere after Mousavi'e declination (in Persian)
• The Guardian Council didn't accept the date suggested by the Ministry of Interior, ISNA's report on the details of the date
• various news articles by Shargh newspaper
• BBC Persian