Post by peterd on May 13, 2013 15:38:35 GMT -8
Iranian Presidential Elections – Part II: Which Candidates Will The Regime Thwart? Supreme Leader Khamenei vs. His Rivals – Rafsanjani And Ahmadinejad
Introduction
By the close of registration for candidates for Iran's presidential election, set for June 14, 2013, 686 individuals had signed up. While most of them are from the conservative camp, two figures stand out, because their candidacies constitute a challenge to the regime and to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. They are Expediency Council head and former president Hashemi Rafsanjani and Rahim Mashaei, ally and relative through marriage of current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both have been targets of a regime de-legitimization campaign over the past few months, and they registered literally at the last minute, just before registration closed.
Although Hashemi Rafsanjani was right-hand man to regime founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and although he has held and still holds senior leadership positions, he is considered to have been behind the 2009 Green Movement and since then has unceasingly criticized Supreme Leader Khamenei for his actions regarding those events. This is the backdrop to his March 2011 removal from his positions as Assembly of Experts head[1] and as the official Friday prayer leader for Tehran, as well to his children's arrest and imprisonment for anti-regime activity in the Green Movement, and to his his brother and office director Mohsen Hashemi's disqualification from running in the recent municipal elections, on claims that he does not support the constitution or the "rule of the jurisprudent."[2]
www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7179.htm
Introduction
By the close of registration for candidates for Iran's presidential election, set for June 14, 2013, 686 individuals had signed up. While most of them are from the conservative camp, two figures stand out, because their candidacies constitute a challenge to the regime and to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. They are Expediency Council head and former president Hashemi Rafsanjani and Rahim Mashaei, ally and relative through marriage of current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both have been targets of a regime de-legitimization campaign over the past few months, and they registered literally at the last minute, just before registration closed.
Although Hashemi Rafsanjani was right-hand man to regime founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and although he has held and still holds senior leadership positions, he is considered to have been behind the 2009 Green Movement and since then has unceasingly criticized Supreme Leader Khamenei for his actions regarding those events. This is the backdrop to his March 2011 removal from his positions as Assembly of Experts head[1] and as the official Friday prayer leader for Tehran, as well to his children's arrest and imprisonment for anti-regime activity in the Green Movement, and to his his brother and office director Mohsen Hashemi's disqualification from running in the recent municipal elections, on claims that he does not support the constitution or the "rule of the jurisprudent."[2]
www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7179.htm
