Results After the first round of the election, some people, including
Mehdi Karroubi, the pragmatic reformist candidate who ranked third in the first round but was the first when partial results were first published, have alleged that a network of
mosques, the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps military forces, and Basij militia forces have been illegally used to generate and mobilize support for Ahmadinejad. Karroubi has explicitly alleged that
Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, was involved. Ayatollah Khamenei then wrote to Karroubi and mentioned that these allegations are below his dignity and will result in a crisis in
Iran, which he will not allow. As a reply, Karroubi resigned from all his political posts, including an Advisor to the Supreme Leader and a member of
Expediency Discernment Council, on both of which he had been installed by Khamenei. The day after, on
June 20, a few reformist morning newspapers,
Eghbal,
Hayat-e No,
Aftab-e Yazd, and
Etemaad were stopped from distribution by the general prosecutor of Tehran,
Saeed Mortazavi, for publishing Karroubi's letter.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the leading candidate, has also pointed to organized and unjust interventions by "guiding" the votes, and has supported Karroubi's complaint
[2].
Also, some political groups, including the reformist party
Islamic Iran Participation Front, have alleged that Ahmadinejad had only ranked second because of the illegal support and advertising activities for him during the voting by the supervisors selected by the
Guardian Council, while the supervisors should have remained impartisan according to the election law. Also, the reformist newspaper
Shargh has pointed to an announcement by Movahhedi Kermani, the official representative of the supreme leader in Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, mentioning "vote for a person who keeps to the minimum in his advertisements and doesn't lavish", which uniquely pointed to Ahmadinejad.
[3] Many of the controversies include the Guardian Council in the illegal activities, including it publishing an opinion poll before the election putting Ahmadinejad as the front-runner against all other opinion polls, and it announcing the partial results of the election on the day after the election, putting Ahmadinejad on the second rank while he was still in the third rank in the partial statistics published by the Ministry of Interior, which led to President Khatami going to the Ministry several times and explicitly asking the Council to not announce any more partial results.
Election controversies The
Islamic Republic government of Iran, especially the
Supreme Leader and the higher offices, publicly considers the
turnout of the voters, which was about 63% in the first round, to resemble the support of the population for the regime, while some voters consider voting for the candidates less aligned with the supreme leader as a vote against the current practices of the regime.
Also, some voters, including exiled citizens belonging to opposition political groups or
monarchists (both living outside Iran), some parts of the intellectual community living in Iran, and even a few
reformists, had
boycotted the election as a symbol of not supporting the current regime and its practices. The boycotters' reasons included the massive rejection of registered candidates, that they believed that the role of the Iranian president is insignificant in the power structure and overshadowed by those of the supreme leader who is practically elected for life, and that they believed that all the candidates had already helped the regime in the oppression of its political opposition or would do so if elected. The most famous boycott leader was
Akbar Ganji, imprisoned in
Evin prison for his journalism and in a
hunger strike.
While some members of the intellectual community in Iran supported the boycott, some key figures, residing inside Iran or exiled to Europe or North America, had asked their readers and the general population to vote in the election, reasoning that not voting in the election would result in the election of one of the three conservative candidates, who were all
military people with a background in
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The most famous supporters of voting in the intellectual community included
Ebrahim Nabavi,
Masoud Behnoud, and
Khashayar Deyhimi. These people were mostly supporting
Moeen as their preferred candidate who is considered to be the least aligned with Ayatollah Khamenei, but a few have also talked or written in support of
Rafsanjani or
Karroubi.
After the results of the first round, many of the supporters of the boycott are now supporting Hashemi Rafsanjani, and many of the supporters of the reformist candidates, including many supporters of Moeen, are doing the same.
Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) and
Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (MIRO), as the two main parties who supported Moeen, are included, with IIPF asking for "uniting against the rise of religious
fascism" and MIRO telling about the rival "
Führer-istic mindset". Moeen himself has mentioned that he will not personally vote in the second round, but that his supporters "should take the danger of fascism seriously" and should not think about a boycott in the second round.
Also,
Emadeddin Baghi, the President of the Iranian Association for Supporting Prisoners' Rights and one of the boycotters, has also spoken in support of Rafsanjani and mentioned that while he still considers Rafsanjani a conservative, he prefers his traditional conservatism to Ahmadinezhad's fundamentalism.
Turnout and boycotts The schedule of the election had been decided between the Ministry of Interior and the Guardian Council for
June 17,
2004. The election will continue as a runoff race, which will take place a week later than the first round of elections, on
June 24,
2005. The registration of candidates began on
May 10,
2005 and continued for five days, until
May 14. If the Guardian Council had requested, it may have been extended for five more days, until
May 19. The candidates were not allowed to do advertisements, until the final list of approved candidates are known. The official period for advertisement was
May 27 to
June 15.
In the first round, Iranian nationals born on or before
June 17,
1990, residing in or outside Iran, were able to vote. The election in Iran began on 09:00 local time (04:30
UTC) and while the original deadline was ten hours later on 19:00 (14:30 UTC), the deadline was extended three times by the
Ministry of Interior, finally until 23:00 (18:30 UTC). Outside Iran, different times are used as the opening and closing hours for the polling offices. On the same date, mid-term Majlis elections for
Gachsaran,
Garmsar,
Ghazvin,
Ilam,
Iranshahr,
Jolfa,
Marand,
Sarbaz, and
Shiraz took place together with the runoff elections of Tehran for the
Iranian Majlis election of 2004.
The first three suggestions by the Ministry, for
May 13,
May 20, and
June 10,
2005, had been rejected by the Council. The Ministry had 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.
The second round of the election will happen on
June 24, and Iranian nationals born on or before
June 24,
1990 were able to vote. The election in Iran began at 09:00 local time (04:30 UTC) and the closing time of the voting polls was at 19:00 (14:30 UTC), but was subject to extension by the Ministry of Interior.
Schedule The registration of the candidates finished on
May 14,
2005 and 1014 candidates had registered to run, including many people who didn't have the qualifications required in the law. More than 90% of the candidates were men, and there were about ninety female candidates. The law about the election process does not include any requirements for people who want to register to run: it only provides qualifications that are to be checked by the Guardian Council.
The candidates must have first be approved by the
Guardian Council before being put to public vote and it could be predicted that some of the candidates would not win the approval, especially
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh and
Ebrahim Yazdi, who were rejected by the Council in the
parliamentary elections of 2004 and/or the
presidential elections of 2001. There were also some people who expected
Mostafa Moeen, the most controversial reformist candidate, to be disqualified as well. But the most unpredictable was the disqualification of conservative
Reza Zavare'i, a former member of the Guardian Council and an approved presidential candidate for two previous elections.
Also, there was a high probability of rejection of women, because of an ambiguous term ("
rejāl", رجال) in the
Constitution of Iran, a requirement for presidential candidates, which may be interpreted as either "men" or "nobles". 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 had also been discussions for 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 the participation of
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and
Mehdi Karroubi. The attempt failed with no proposal appearing.
Candidates The list of all the people who have officially registered to run for the post is not available to the public, but the Guardian Council published a final list of six approved candidates on
May 22, rejecting all independent candidates and some candidates from the both wings, specially the reformist candidates
Mostafa Moeen and
Mohsen Mehralizadeh. This raised many objections among the general public and the political parties, including student protests in the
Tehran University, among other universities. This, and the objections of some of the approved candidates, led to a letter from
Ayatollah Khamenei, the
Supreme Leader, to the Guardian Council asking for the approval of Moeen and Mehralizadeh (this had apparently been because of a request by
Haddad-Adel, the conservative Speaker of the
Parliament)
[4]. It is unknown if that letter meant that the Guardian Council
must have approved these two, or it
should have only reconsidered their case. The next day, on
May 23, the Guardian Council announced the approval of Moeen and Mehralizadeh.
Mohsen Rezaee, one of the approved conservative candidates, who is the Secretary of
Expediency Discernment Council and a previous commander of the
Iran-Iraq war, withdrew in the evening of
June 15.
These are the candidates approved by the Council of Guardians:
Approved candidates Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Chairman of the
Expediency Discernment Council and a former President of Iran, who has won the support of several parties from both of the wings (and may still win more support), but is considered to be leaned towards the conservatives more than towards the reformists. Ironically, the reformist alliance considered him as a possible candidate of theirs more than the conservative alliance. He was invited to run for president by
Executives of Construction Party (reformist),
Combatant Clergy Association (conservative),
Islamic Labour Party (conservative), and
Workers' House (reformist), as well as several other parties across the whole spectrum of positions. Rafsanjani confirmed he is running for the election on
May 10, after lots of speculations
[5].
Trans-party Mehdi Karroubi, former Majlis Speaker, Secretary General of
Association of Combatant Clerics (MCS), supported by MCS,
Islamic Association of Engineers,
Majma'-e Gorooh-haa-ye Khat-te Emam, and
Democracy Party of Iran.
Mohsen Mehralizadeh, Vice-President and Head of National Sports Organization, member of IIPF. Mehralizadeh has first 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, but during the registration mentioned that he will remain in the race until the end.
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 supported Moeen, whom they claimed to be the most probable candidate to win the approval of other parties in the reformist alliance. Some conservative Majlis representatives had asked for the Guardian Council's rejection of Moeen, which happened finally but was reversed after a letter by Ayatollah Khamenei. Moeen had announced that he would choose
Mohammad Reza Khatami as his First Vice President if he was elected, and had already chosen
Elaheh Koulaee, a female representative of the sixth
Islamic Assembly, as his spokeswoman.
Reformists Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mayor of
Tehran, member of
Islamic Society of Engineers (ISE), supported by some parts of
Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (ABII). Although Ahmadinejad said he would not seek nomination on
February 2,
2005, he returned to the scene later.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, former Commander of Police (
niroo-ye entezaami). Contrary to the public announcement of
Ayatollah Khamenei, the
Supreme Leader of Iran, that nobody knows who he will personally vote for, Ghalibaf had claimed privately that he is the person Khamenei will vote for.
Ali Larijani, Supreme Leader's representative in
National Security Council and a former director of
IRIB, who was supposed to be the major conservative candidate, as chosen by the "Council for Coordinating the Revolution Forces" (
showrā-ye hamāhangi-e nirūhā-ye enǧelāb), a council of some older and very influential leaders of the conservative alliance.
Rejected candidates The most important withdrawal was that of
Mohsen Rezaee, one of the candidates who was approved by the Guardian Council and participated in the race until the evening of
June 15,
2005, two days before the election and only a few hours before the final deadline allowed for advertisements. Rezaee mentioned he is withdrawing from the race for "the integraton of the votes of the nation" and "their effectiveness". He did not endorse any candidate.
[8] Also, several people were considered possible candidates for the post, who later declined to run early in the race or at the final moments before registration. A list of the ones considered seriously in the media includes:
Reformists:
- Safdar Hosseini, Minister of Economy and Finance Affair, member of IIPF
Hadi Khamenei, member of Society of Forces Following the Line of the Imam, declined 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
Mohammad Ali Najafi, former Minister of Education
Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Spokesman of Government, member of IIPF
Conservatives:
- 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.
Abdollah Jasbi, President of Islamic Azad University. Jasbi withdrew in favour of Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Mohammad Javad Larijani, Director of IPM. He strongly endorses his brother Ali Larijani for presidency.
Hossein Mirmohammad-Sadeghi, former speaker of Judiciary Branch
Ahmad Tavakkoli, Majlis representative and Director of Majlis Research Center and former presidential candidate. Tavakkoli resigned from the race on May 1, 2005, telling that he is doing this to help minimize the diversity in the conservative camp. He is supporting Ghalibaf in the elections.
Ali Akbar Velayati, an Adviser to the Supreme Leader for foreign affairs, and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Velayati was supported inside the conservative alliance by Islamic Coalition Party (ICP). Valayati had confirmed that he does not accept the support of the Council for Coordination and will run independently, unless Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was the President of Iran during Velayati's ministership, runs. On May 14, Velayati did not register to run until the official deadline, and then announced that he is supporting Rafsanjani in the elections.
Independents:
- 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
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