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Iranian presidential election of 2005 will take place in May or June, 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 is not determined yet, but will be decided between the Ministry of Interior and the Guardian Council. According to the presidential election law, the registration of the candidates may begin no earlier than three Iranian months before the end of the previous president's term (May 1, 2005). Also, according to the Iranian constitution, the election should take place at least one month eariler than the end of the term (July 2, 2005). But since the election may continue into a runoff race, which will take place at least a week later than the first round of elections, it's almost impossible for the first round to take place later than June 24, 2005. Most possibly, the election will take place in late May or early June.
The first suggetion by the Ministry, for May 13, 2005, was rejected by the Council on November 13, 2004.
Candidates
No person has confirmed that he is running for the post of president yet, 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. 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 either means "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 who passed the other requirements of the constitution.
There are also discussions about a possible new law passed by the Majlis, restrictiing the maximum age of the candidates for the presidential elections, which may limit participation of older candidates, probably Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mehdi Karroubi. But the Guardian Council, which is required to confirm every law passed by the Majlis, will most probably reject such a law, as mentioned by the Council's speaker, Gholamhossein Elham, on November 13, 2004.
There exist many contradicting reports about the possible candidates and people's declinations. The list of possible candidates include:
Trans-party
- Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, present Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, 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. He is invited to run for president by Executives of Construction Party (reformist), Islamic Labour Party (conservative), Jam'iyat-e Vafaadaaraan-e Enghelaab-e Eslaami (conservative), Moderation and Development Party (conservative), and Workers' House (reformist).
- Mohammad Reza Aref, First Vice President and a member of Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF)
- Safdar Hosseini, Minister of Economy and Finance Affairs and a member of IIPF
- Mehdi Karroubi, former member of parliament and Secretary General of Militant Clerics Society (MCS)
- Hadi Khamenei,former member of pparliament and member of Society of Forces Following the Line of the Imam and MCS
- Mohammad Reza Khatami, Secretary General of IIPF
- Hassan Khomeini, Grandson of Ruhollah Khomeini
- Mostafa Moin, former Minister of Science,Research and Technology, supported by IIPF¹ and Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (MIRO)
- Mohammad Mousavi-Khoiniha, member of MCS
- Behzad Nabavi, member of MIRO
- Mohammad Ali Najafi, member of Executives of Construction Party (ECP)
- Bizhan Namdar-Zangeneh, Minister of Petroleum and a member of ECP
- Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Spokesman of Government and a member of IIPF
- Sadegh Tabatabaee, son-in-law of Ayatollah Khomeini
- Declined:
- Mir-Hossein Mousavi, declined on October 12
¹: Islamic Iran Participation Front, the most important reformist party in Iran, has mentioned that they won't support any presidential candidate outside the party, except Mousavi and Moin. Since Mousavi has declined to run, they are currently supporting Moin, who looks to them to be the most probable candidate to win the approval of other parties in the reformist alliance.
- Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to the Supreme Leader, most probable
- Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad, Mayor of Tehran and a member of Islamic Society of Engineers
- Habibollah Asgar-Owladi, member of Islamic Coalition Party (ICP)
- Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, Speaker of Majlis
- Abdollah Jaspi, head of Islamic Azad University and a member of ICP
- Ali Larijani, an adviser to the Supreme Leader and a member of ICP
- Mohammad Javad Larijani, director of Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM)
- Mohsen Rezai, Secretary of Expediency Discernment Council
- Hassan Rouhani, Secretary of National Security Council
- Ahmad Tavakkoli, member of parliament and former presidential candidate and current Director of Majlis Research Center
- Reza Zavare'i, former member of Guardian Council and member of ICP
Independents:
- Shirin Ebadi, winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 2003
- Nasser Hejazi, Former national football player.
- Azam Taleghani, daughter of Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani
See also: Politics of Iran
External link
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