Tuesday, May 11, 2021, was the registration day for the Iranian Presidential elections and, according to the state-run Fars News agency, many candidates ignored the terms set by the Guardian Council, which is the body that approves candidates.
Why would candidates ignore the conditions given by the 12-member council? It seems that they do not believe the council, who are directly or indirectly appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of the “hardliner” faction, to be impartial, in what can be seen as a power struggle between warring, but not that different, factions.
Even “reformist” President Hassan Rouhani has dismissed the conditions that saw many “reformist” candidates disqualified in various other elections this year after Khamenei said that he wanted to unify the regime and showed support for a “young and hezbollahi” government with a president in the model of assassinated Quds Force chief and terrorist Qassem Soleimani. Rouhani said the Guardian Council had no right to impose these new rules and that the elections should be run based on existing criteria.
This is his exact comment on Wednesday: “For registrations, the existing rules should be the criterion. The requirements of the Ministry of Interior must be implemented within the framework of the law and with the notification of the President.”
However, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, the Guardian Council spokesperson, said that same day: “The decision of the Guardian Council is binding on the Ministry of Interior and other executives… The registration of those who do not have the documents announced by the Guardian Council is not valid, and we told our representative not to accept them.”
This comment was a response to the Interior Ministry decision to register candidates based on compliance with the existing law on Tuesday, rather than the new Guardian Council conditions.
Why is Khamenei trying to consolidate power anyway? Simply because he feels it slipping away with each new protest, each additional sanction, and each passing day. He thinks that by installing hardliners in almost every office, he can stop the people from rising up and overthrowing the regime.
He is wrong. As Iran faces more crises than it has in a generation, from the economy to the pandemic to the human rights abuses, more people are ready to destroy the regime. Many are also prepared to have their voices heard by not voting next month, stating that their vote is for regime change, as made clear at the two uprisings seen in the last three-and-a-half years.
