Can a presidential election reshape Iran?

On Tuesday, June 8 at 19:30 GMT:
Candidates for Iran’s next president are vying for approval in the final two weeks of campaigning, but public discontent over the final list of nominees and widespread apathy among potential voters suggests election day will be a muted affair.

Ebrahim Raisi, a conservative and Iran’s chief justice, is favourite to win the June 18 election among seven candidates approved by Iran’s 12-member Guardian Council, which reports to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Four other approved candidates are conservatives, including former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and deputy parliament speaker Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi.

Only two approved nominees – former central bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati and former Vice President Mohsen Mehralizadeh – hold reformist or moderate leanings, and neither have a particularly large public following.

Former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, a conservative who has more recently expressed moderate views, and Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, an established reformist, were both considered strong challengers to Raisi but were among 585 aspirants disqualified. Iran’s outgoing president Hassan Rouhani, a reformist, had already criticised the council’s move to tighten eligibility criteria for individuals to run for president.

Millions of Iranians are living in poverty amid high inflation, currency devaluation and double-digit unemployment, driven by US sanctions that were re-imposed soon after then-US President Donald Trump walked away from a landmark international nuclear deal with Iran. But as Iran indirectly negotiates with the administration of US President Joe Biden to resurrect the accord and have Washington drop the sanctions, many people in Iran appear to consider the election a foregone conclusion in Raisi’s favour. A poll that was conducted after the announcement of the final list of presidential candidates predicted a low turnout. A coalition of activists, including political prisoners, has for weeks called for people to boycott the election, prompting Khamenei to urge people to vote.

In this episode of The Stream, we’ll look at the issues uppermost in the minds of Iranians and the mood in Iran as election day nears.

In this episode of The Stream, we are joined by:
Maziar Motamedi, @MotamediMaziar
Iran correspondent, Al Jazeera English Digital

Soraya Lennie, @soraya_lennie
Author, “Crooked Alleys: Deliverance and Despair in Iran”

Assal Rad, @AssalRad
Senior Research Fellow, National Iranian American Council
niacouncil.org