Iran Today: Presidential Election --- All About Rafsanjani So Far

See also Iran Special: EA's Guide to the Presidential Election
Iran Election 101: An Animated Guide
Wednesday's Iran Today: Supreme Leader Losing Control of the Presidential Election?

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Election Watch: Supreme Leader's Committee Edition

Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a member of the Supreme Leader's 2+1 Committee, has indicated that it will not put out a final decision of a "unity" candidate until after the registration of hopefuls.

Haddad Adel announced, "All three of us [the Supreme Leader's senior aide Ali Akbar Velayati, Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, and Haddad-Adel] will register. It is not clear exactly when we will announce the result, but this announcement will not come before the Guardian Council's review [after formal registration closes on 11 May]."

Election Watch: "Committee of 5" Edition

Digarban reports that the "Committee of 5" principlist politicians, all of whom were Presidential hopefuls, have named their candidate: Deputy President Mohammad Hassan Abutorabi Fard.

Aboutorabi Fard will formally register as a candidate tomorrow.

The site claims that Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Reza Bahonar and Inspector General Mostafa Pourmohammadi stepped back from Abutorabi Fard to run. Young Journalists Club says Yahya al-Eshaq also backed Abutorabi Fard, but former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki refused.

Election Watch: Rahim-Mashai Edition

President Ahmadinejad’s right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, will register his candidacy, the last day for declarations, according to Bahman Sharifzade, a cleric close to the former Presidential Chief of Staff.

“Mashai has more than 40% of votes and all parties, from reformists to principlists admitted to his popularity,” Sharifzadeh said in an interview with the reformist Shargh newspaper.

The Guardian Council, the 12-member body vetting candidates, could block Rahim-Mashai, but Sharifzadeh said, “There is no reason for denying Mashai to enter to the Presidential Election.”

Election Watch: Bahonar Edition

Conservative principlist MP and presidential hopeful Mohammad Reza Bahonar has told hardline Mashregh News that he would make a "good president or good deputy".

Bahonar is part of the Principlist Committee of Five, alongside Mohammad Hassan Abutorabi Fard; former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki; former Minister of Interior and current Inspector General Mostafa Pourmohammadi; and the head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Yahya Ale Es’haq.

The former deputy parliamentary speaker told Mashregh News that the committee has not decided on a candidate yet, but would do so, and dismissed criticism that he would not make a good president.

Bahonar also said that incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was "only afraid of God".

Preisdential Election Watch: Rafsanjani Dominates Discussion

Beyond the announcement that 140 people have registered to become candidates and some anodyne reports of statements --- for example, by the Supreme Leader's senior advisor and possible candidate Ali Akbar Velayati --- the election chatter on Wednesday was all about former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Rafsanjani has not yet announced whether he will stand, but the possibility, raised in a speech by former President Mohammad Khatami on Tuesday, is occupying all factions. Some speculated on whether they would have to face a challenge from Rafsanjani, who was head of government from 1989 to 1997; others went farther and denounced the cleric and politician.

Rafsanjani's wife Effat Marashi added to the noise when she reportedly said on Wednesday that her husband would not run. The sting in her statement was the reason: the belief that the regime will not allow an election free from manipulation.