Iran’s ex-president Ahmadinejad registers to run for post but may not get official OK
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Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was first elected as Iran's president in 2005 and stepped down because of term limits in 2013.
PHOTO: REUTERS
DUBAI – Iran’s hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered to run for that post in a June 28 election, organised after the death of Mr Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month,
However, he could be barred from the race. The country’s cleric-led Guardian Council will vet candidates and publish a list of qualified ones on June 11.
Mr Ahmadinejad, a former member of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, was elected as president in 2005 and stepped down because of term limits in 2013.
He was barred from standing in the 2017 election by the Guardian Council, a year after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned him that entering was “not in his interest and that of the country”.
A rift developed between the two after Mr Ahmadinejad explicitly advocated checks on the other man’s ultimate authority.
In 2018, in rare criticism directed at Mr Khamenei, Mr Ahmadinejad wrote to him calling for “free” elections.
Mr Khamenei backed Mr Ahmadinejad after his 2009 re-election triggered protests in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds arrested, rattling the ruling theocracy, before security forces led by the Revolutionary Guards Corps stamped out the unrest. REUTERS
