An election headquarters official sits next to a portrait of the late Iranian revolution founder Ayatollah Khomeini during candidate registration for the June 28 presidential election at the Ministry of Interior in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 1, 2024. The five-day registration period ends on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered as a candidate in the presidential election on Sunday, seeking to regain the country's top political position after a helicopter crash killed the country's president.
The registration of the populist former leader has piled pressure on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. During his time in office, President Ahmadinejad openly challenged the 85-year-old cleric and his attempt to run in the 2021 elections was blocked by authorities.
The return of the Holocaust questioner and firebrand comes at a time of rising tensions between Iran and the West over Iran's burgeoning nuclear program, its arms sales to Russia in the Ukraine war and its widespread crackdown on dissent. Meanwhile, Iran's support for proxy militias across the Middle East has come into the spotlight as Yemen's Houthi rebels attack shipping in the Red Sea over Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Ahmadinejad is the most likely candidate to have registered so far. In a speech after registering, he called for “constructive engagement” with the world and vowed to improve economic ties with all countries.
“Economic, political, cultural and security challenges exceed the situation in 2013,” Ahmadinejad said, referring to the year he left office after two terms.
Speaking to reporters in front of more than 50 microphones, Ahmadinejad raised his finger and said: “Long live spring, long live Iran!”
Supporters chanted and waved Iranian flags before the president arrived at the Iranian Interior Ministry. They quickly surrounded the 67-year-old president, chanting “God is great!”
He walked down the steps of the ministry and showed his passport, as per usual, to the dozens of photographers and video journalists waiting to register. While the women processed his candidacy, he sat down, turned to the journalists, nodded and smiled for the cameras. He was scheduled to speak after he finished registering.
Elections are scheduled for June 28 to decide the successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline protege of Khamenei who died in a helicopter crash in May along with seven others.
Former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, a conservative with strong ties to Iran's relatively moderate former President Hassan Rouhani, has already registered, as has Abdolnaser Hemmati, the former governor of the Central Bank of Iran, who is also running in 2021.
It's unclear who else might run. The country's acting president, Mohammed Mokbel, a former backroom bureaucrat, has already been seen meeting with Khamenei and may be the front-runner. Reformist former president Mohammed Khatami has also been mentioned as a possible candidate, but, like Ahmadinejad, whether he will be allowed to run is another matter.
The five-day registration period ends on Tuesday and the Guardian Council is expected to announce a final list of candidates within 10 days, allowing for a condensed two weeks of campaigning before the vote in late June.
Ahmadinejad served two four-year terms in office from 2005 to 2013. Under Iranian law, he is eligible to run for reelection four years after leaving office, but he remains a divisive figure even among hard-line Iranians. His 2009 reelection sparked massive protests by the Green Movement, which were brutally cracked down on in which thousands were detained and dozens killed.
Abroad, he has become a satirist of what the West sees as Iran's worst traits, having questioned the Holocaust, insisted there are no gays in Iran and suggested Iran could build nuclear weapons if it wanted to.
But Ahmadinejad remains popular with the poor thanks to his populist approach and housing-building programs. Since leaving office, he has increased his public profile through social media and written widely publicized letters to world leaders. He has also criticized government corruption, even as his own administration faces corruption allegations and two former vice presidents are in prison.
In 2017, Khamenei warned Ahmadinejad that his reelection would lead to a “polarized situation” that would be “harmful to the country.” When Ahmadinejad ran for office in 2021, Khamenei said nothing. His candidacy was ultimately rejected by the 12-member Guardian Council of clerics and jurists overseen by Khamenei, which has never accepted anyone who calls for fundamental change in the way women or the country is governed.
The committee could again reject Ahmadinejad, but the election to replace Raisi has yet to produce a candidate who has Khamenei's clear and overwhelming backing.
___
Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.