February 26, 2021
Two more wannabe presi-dents have announced their candidacies for the June 18 presidential elections, but otherwise there has been virtually no public activity around the balloting that is now barely four months away.
There is surprisingly little public interest seen so far in the election. President Rohani is term-limited from running again.
The best-known new candidate is Ali Motahari, a former Majlis deputy who has eclectic positions that range from the far left to far right. He was barred from running for the Majlis again last year for unexplained reasons and likely will not be allowed to run for president.
He has angered the Supreme Leader by frequently demanding that Mehdi Karrubi and Mir-Hossain Musavi, the two losing candidates in the 2009 presidential election who are under house arrest, either be freed or tried on charges that they fomented violence after the election.
Mohsen Rahami, a cleric and Reformist, announced his candidacy February 21. He is little known, having last held elective office as a member of the Majlis from 1980 to 1988.
Prior to Rahami’s announcement, only former Defense Minister Hossain Dehqani had publicly proclaimed his candidacy for president.
A telephone poll taken by the Tehran-based Iran Poll organization in late January and early February found only two public figures with more than 10 percent support—Judiciary Chairman Ebrahim Raisi with 28 percent and former President Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad with 12 percent.
Trailing distantly were Majlis Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf with 6 percent and Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javan Zarif with 5 percent. Zarif is the sole Reformist among the top four.
Another question in the poll asked how voters felt about President Rohani. Only 8 percent said they had “very favorable” views of Rohani, down from 61 percent in 2015, just after he concluded the nuclear deal.
Sixty-four percent of those polled this year said they wanted a candidate who would oppose Rohani’s policies,
Formal registration of candidates will be held from May 11 to 16. Voting will be on June 18.