| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran election campaign kicks off without Short Round |
| 2017-04-23 |
[DAWN] Campaigning began on Friday for Iran’s presidential election with incumbent Hassan Rouhani facing a tough battle against hard liners, though not from former president Mahmoud Short RoundAhmadinejad who was barred from standing. Ahmadinejad’s disqualification by the conservative-run Guardian Council was no surprise -- he had been advised not to run by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who said it would "polarise" the nation. His populist economics and defiant attitude to the establishment had alienated even Ahmadinejad’s hard-line backers during his 2005-2013 tenure. "Once the supreme leader had told him not to stand, it became impossible for him to be cleared by the Guardian Council," said Clement Therme, research fellow for Iran at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "By his second term, [Ahmadinejad] was even challenging the holy mans. He was not useful anymore for the system." |
| Posted by:Fred |