Iran: Dispute over Conditions for Prospective Presidential Candidates

Iran opened on Tuesday the door for candidacies for the upcoming presidential vote, amid differences between President Hassan Rouhani on one hand, and the Guardian Council on the other over the conditions for running for the elections.

On Monday, Rouhani rejected the decision of the Guardian Council to study the candidates’ applications and ordered Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli to work in accordance with the current laws.

“The requirements of the Ministry of Interior must be implemented within the framework of the law and the instructions of the Presidency of the Republic,” the president said in a letter addressed to Fazli.

The Guardian Council has specified, however, that “all nominees must be between 40 and 70 years of age, hold at least a master’s degree or its equivalent, have experience of at least four years in managerial posts… and have no criminal record”, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV, as reported by AFP.

The new terms come in implementation of a 2016 directive from Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei for the council to clarify and “determine” the requirements.

According to the council, the amendment has been passed on to the interior ministry, which will receive nominations from May 11-15 before submitting them to the vetting body.

The updated requirements are likely to exclude some well-known figures, such as Rouhani’s telecom minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, who is 39, or the elite Revolutionary Guards’ Saeed Mohammad, whose rank is below major general.

Former candidate Mohammad Gharazi, a 79-year-old ex-minister, would also be ruled out, as well as senior reformist figure Mostafa Tajzadeh, who was jailed during Iran’s 2009 protests, because of a conviction the following year.

The increasing number of Revolutionary Guard generals who have announced their candidacy or are likely to be intending to compete in the presidential race, have raised fears of the “militarization” of the political circle within the Iranian regime, according to AFP.