Rafsanjani officially running for president

Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Former Iranian President, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, will run in the next presidential election scheduled for June 17.

The announcement was made by Reza Soleimani, head of public relations at the Expediency Council arbitration body which Rafsanjani heads.

Rafsanjani, 70, was elected president twice in 1989 and 1993, but under Iran's constitution presidents can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.

For this reason, outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, who was elected in 1997 and 2001, cannot run this year.

Rafsanjani is running as a pragmatic conservative, a champion of private enterprise and a supporter of closer ties with the West. But in domestic politics, he remains a conservative.

A recent survey puts him at the top of the list of possible candidates with 16 per cent of voter support.

Sources close to Rafsanjani say however he lacks the backing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The other main contenders are state-television boss Ali Larijani who is running under the banner of the main conservative party, the Council for Coordinating Forces in the Islamic Revolution; former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati; populist ex-police Chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and former Revolutionary Guards Chief Mohsen Rezai.

With registration open till next Friday, dozens of other candidates are apply with the Interior Ministry in order to run in the presidential elections, many of them workers and young women whose candidacy is destined to be rejected by the Council of Guardians, Iran's conservative-dominated constitutional court, which vets all applications. 

• iran
• presidential
• elections
• june
• 17
• 2005
• islam
• democracy
• progress
• development
• reforms