Campaign signs on the streets of Iran in the run-up to the upcoming presidential election are filled with grandiose promises, including a thriving economy, an end to corruption, a free press, stemming talent exodus and one candidate's pledge to “save the people” from all the hardships afflicting the country.
To garner votes, all six candidates — five conservative, one reformist, all selected by a clerical committee — have railed against the status quo. In speeches, televised debates and roundtables, they have criticized the government's economic, domestic and foreign policies and the morality police's violence against women, and ridiculed the government's optimistic assessment of Iran's economic prospects as a harmful delusion.
Iran will hold special presidential elections on June 28 to choose a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline conservative who died in a helicopter crash last month. While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has final say on major policy decisions in Iran, the president can set domestic policy and, to a lesser extent, influence foreign policy.
Iran's elections are not free and fair by Western standards, and candidates are rigorously vetted by a 12-member Guardian Council consisting of six clerics and six jurists. However, some elections are highly competitive and the results are unpredictable. The Guardian Council approved the current candidates from a list of 80 candidates, seven of whom were women, including a former president and several government ministers and lawmakers, all of whom were disqualified.
In past political movements, both conservatives and reformists have attacked their rivals, but conservatives have typically stayed within strict ideological boundaries that forbid attacking the establishment.
While harsh criticism of the campaign might be expected from a reformist candidate, it has surprised some Iranians that it has come from a conservative. And that may be the point, analysts say.
Voter turnout is a key indicator for the government and a gauge of its support and legitimacy, but it has slumped amid boycotts and voter apathy. To some extent, the debate reflects real divisions within the political community and a general dissatisfaction with the country's problems, even among government officials.
The very presence of Reform candidate Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian is surprising since the council has barred most Reform candidates from running in recent parliamentary and presidential elections, but this too may be a government ploy to boost voter turnout, one Iran expert said.
Dr Pezechkian, a cardiac surgeon, former health minister and long-time member of parliament, was a “nominal candidate trying to stir controversy and mobilise the public to vote,” said Sanam Baqir, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. “They probably calculated that for their internal perception and legitimacy, it would be advantageous to make the election look more dynamic.”
Still, Vakil said Iran's election season has showcased a level of rigorous national debate rarely seen in some of the region's authoritarian countries.
Despite the government's efforts, it remains difficult to generate enough interest to get voters to turn out in large numbers. Voter skepticism is widespread, with many Iranians saying in interviews, social media posts and election forums that they don't believe much change can be achieved through the ballot box and that they want an end to clerical rule.
“Every day we are outraged by your ostentatious deceptions,” an unnamed male college student told Dr Pezeshkian at a recent rally at Tehran University, according to a video recorded from the event, as the auditorium erupted in cheers and applause.
The student then questioned the importance of the presidency: “What is the point of a presidency if it has no power to influence those at the top and no power to be immune from interference from the intelligence agencies?”
Dr Pezeshkian was generally sympathetic, but told the students that as president he did not have the power to achieve many of the things he wanted, such as the release of political prisoners, “even if I wanted to.”
He also told students that he was against the morality police and voiced his opposition to the treatment of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman whose death in morality police custody in 2022 sparked a nationwide uprising.
“We are doing things that women and girls dislike,” he said. “It's our actions that are divisive.”
Iran's elections are fluid, with candidates sometimes dropping out to solidify support for one or two candidates. Currently, the front-runner is conservative Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, a former Revolutionary Guards commander who now serves as speaker of parliament.
Ghalibaf is an autocrat with close ties to Khamenei. Whistleblowers and journalists have reported multiple scandals involving Ghalibaf and his family, including financial corruption and ideological heresy, such as preaching austerity while his relatives spent lavishly abroad. He denies the charges.
Navid Farokhi, 45, an entrepreneur and business owner from Tehran who serves on the advisory board of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, said he supported Ghalibaf because of his decades of administrative experience as mayor and his dealings with foreign capital. He said he was not concerned by the corruption allegations.
“I live here, I work here and I manage a workforce with a lot of challenges,” Farokhi said in a phone interview. “I want to feel like I have a say in improving our lives, and I can do that by participating in elections.”
Ali, a 42-year-old engineer from Tehran, who asked that his surname not be used for fear of retribution, said in an interview that he was beginning to like Dr Pezeshkian and was considering voting for him.
“I didn't think I would be voting for anyone in this election, but Pezechkian is an interesting guy,” he said. “He's outspoken and forthright and has an unblemished political record.”
The other four conservative candidates are Saeed Jalili, an ultra-hardliner who has served in high-ranking positions including as chief nuclear negotiator, Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, who served as vice president in Raisi's government, Alireza Zakhani, the current mayor of Tehran, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the only cleric to have served as director of the counterintelligence department of the Ministry of Intelligence and as minister of justice.
Ghalibaf has argued that he can improve the efficiency of government. He complained in a televised roundtable discussion that at least 30 percent of oil revenues are being lost to sanctions evasion, a figure he called unacceptably high and “the result of ignorance, incompetence and thoughtlessness.”
Cleric Pourmohammadi declared in a televised debate that the Islamic Republic had almost lost its people and “needed a miracle” to govern successfully.
“This is a miracle of public trust. A miracle of people trusting their government,” he added.
Pourmohammadi's argument was epitomized by Sohail, a 37-year-old engineer from Isfahan, who asked not to use his last name for fear of retribution. “I won't vote. The elections are not free,” he said in a phone interview. “I don't see my representative among the candidates, and I don't see any difference between them. No one represents my wishes.”
Candidates are free to criticize the government, but the press is heavily restricted: this month two prominent journalists, Yashar Soltani and Sabah Azarpeik, were arrested for exposing corruption allegations against senior government officials, particularly Ghalibaf.
A government agency warned all media outlets in June that any reporting that could be interpreted as encouraging people not to vote or reducing voter participation was a criminal offence, with top officials liable to up to 74 lashes and publication licenses revoked.
Nobel laureate and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence, was sentenced to an additional year on Tuesday, her lawyer Mostafa Nili said.
The additional punishment came after she called on Iranians to boycott March's parliamentary elections, and for criticising Mr Ghalibaf's daughter Dina for throwing a lavish baby shower in Turkey and then importing nearly £500 of baby clothes and related products – despite her father's urging that Iranians should buy domestically made products.
The scandal has become known in Iran as “#babyshowergate.”
Iranian judicial authorities announced late Thursday the arrest of Vahid Ashtari, a prominent conservative whistleblower who exposed the baby shower scandal.
Rayleigh Niconazar Contributed report.
