이란 대통령 선거, 개혁파 후보 단일화

 

                                "개혁파 후보의 단일화를 요구하는 목소리를 존중한다"고 밝히고, 후보 사퇴를 선언한 개혁파 후보인 아레프 前 부통령 모습

이란 대통령 선거는 구미와의 대립노선을 견지하고 있는 보수강경파가 선거전을 유리하게 전개하고 있는 가운데 구미와의 관계개선을 추구하는 개혁파가 후보자를 단일화해 선거전의 정세 변화에 주목이 쏠리고 있습니다.

이란에서는 아마디네자드 대통령의 임기가 만료됨에 따라 오는 14일 대통령 선거가 실시됩니다.

선거전은 최고지도자에 가까운 보수강경파를 중심으로 전개돼, 구미와의 관계개선을 추구하는 개혁파는 치안당국이 경계를 강화하는 가운데 어려운 선거전이 지속되고 있습니다.

이러한 가운데 10일밤, 개혁파 후보인 아레프 전 부통령이 연설에서 "개혁파 후보의 단일화를 요구하는 목소리를 존중한다"고 밝히고, 후보 사퇴를 선언했습니다.

이로서 개혁파의 지지는 로우하니 씨로 단일화되었습니다.

                                                                                                 개혁파의 지지는 로우하니 후보
로우하니 씨는 개혁파인 하타미 정권하에서 핵협상 책임자로서 구미 측에 유연한 대응을 보였던 정치가로 알려져 있으며, 개혁파를 중심으로 현정권에 불만을 가진 사람들을 수용할 수 있는 후보자로서 지지를 모으고 있습니다.

 

Profiles: Iran election candidates

Eight candidates were approved to stand in the presidential elections by Iran's Guardian Council. Two of the candidates withdrew days before the poll. The winner will replace incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is constitutionally barred form seeking re-election. Here are the candidates' profiles.

Saeed Jalili

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, is running for president for the first time. He is said to be very close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

 Mr Jalili seeks an aggressive policy abroad and limited political openness at home

He first came to prominence after he was appointed as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and Iran's top negotiator with the West in September 2007.

Born in the north-eastern city of Mashhad in 1965, he joined the paramilitary Basij force and served in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) on several tours of duty as a volunteer. He was wounded in combat and lost his right leg.

A PhD holder, Mr Jalili wrote his doctoral thesis on the "political thought in the Koran". Iranian news websites have portrayed him as an intellectual loyal to Islamic "ideals" and leading the "simple life".

His critics say he lacks the administrative experience to run the country, especially at a time when Iran is suffering from West-imposed sanctions over its nuclear programme.

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf

The current mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf is seen as a pragmatic conservative, loyal to the Supreme Leader.

Mr Qalibaf is seen as a moderniser and technocrat within the right-wing and conservative elements

The 51-year-old is a former military and police commander who later turned to politics, coming fourth in the 2005 presidential election.

The mayor has often been critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies, particularly regarding the economy and his management of the country; and was also closely associated with a coalition of conservative critics of the outgoing president.

Mr Qalibaf had previously served as head of the air force wing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and is a frontline veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war before becoming the national chief of police.

He is credited with firm tactics that suppressed student protests peacefully in 2003, and initiated popular police reforms in which women were allowed to serve for the first time.

A qualified pilot, Mr Qalibaf was reportedly still moonlighting for Iran Air and flying Airbus jets whilst holding his post as head of the country's police forces. He is also a lecturer at Tehran University.

Ali Akbar Velayati

'Mr may I' Ali Akbar Velayati has a wealth of political experience

Few candidates can match the political experience of Ali Akbar Velayati, the Supreme Leader's longstanding advisor on international affairs, who is also Iran's longest-serving minister since the 1979 revolution.

Seen as an irreproachable character, he is sometimes referred to by the public as "Mr may I", suggesting he seeks permission from the Supreme Leader at all times. He has been Ayatollah Khamenei's advisor since 1997, and is also the secretary-general of the World Assembly of Islamic Awakening.

Mr Velayati was born in 1945 in Tehran. A qualified medical doctor, he served as the deputy health minister from 1980 to 1981 and then as foreign minister for an unprecedented 16 years, from 1981 to 1997.

He belongs to the same "principle-ist" or conservative coalition as presidential candidates MP Haddad-Adel and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

Hassan Rowhani

Hassan Rowhani is a key figure in Iranian politics, having held several parliamentary posts such as Deputy Speaker and Ayatollah Khamenei's representative at the Supreme National Security Council.

Mr Rowhani has said some of President Ahmadinejad's remarks have cost Iran dearly

Mr Rowhani has been a chief negotiator in nuclear talks with the EU, and he currently heads the Expediency Council's Strategic Research Centre.

The 64-year-old cleric is often described as a "moderate" or "pragmatic conservative". He has openly criticised President Ahmadinejad by saying that his "careless, uncalculated and unstudied remarks" have cost the country dearly.

During student demonstrations against the closure of a reformist newspaper in 1999, Mr Rowhani adopted a tough stance, declaring that those arrested for sabotage and destroying state property would face the death penalty if found guilty.

But more recently, he supported the demonstrations that erupted after the 2009 election and criticised the government for opposing what he saw as the people's right to peacefully protest.

Mr Rowhani is said to be fluent in English, German, French, Russian, and Arabic, and has a law doctorate from Glasgow Caledonian University.

Gholamali Haddad-Adel

Mr Haddad-Adel pulled out of the race 'to help promote a conservative victory'

Gholamali Haddad-Adel withdrew from the race four days before the elections "to help promote the conservative victory". Mr Haddad-Adel is seen as completely loyal to the Supreme Leader, an impression reinforced by his family ties by marriage to the Khamenei family. Mr Haddad-Adel's daughter is the wife of Ayatollah Khamenei's son Mojtaba.

Although these connections were regarded by some as a strong point in the elections, he was seen to be lacking in oratory skills. In addition, some wonder why there seems to be little information available about his role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In Iran's political arena, being a revolutionary activist is an important advantage for political figures.

The 68-year-old MP for Tehran served as parliamentary Speaker from 2004-2008 and has been a parliamentarian since 2000. He has held several positions in the Islamic system since the revolution and he was the first non-cleric Speaker of parliament. He has also written several religious books, and is fluent in Arabic and English.

Mr Haddad-Adel was part of the same conservative coalition as Ali Akbar Velayati and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

Mohammad Reza Aref

Mr Aref withdrew days before the election

Mohammad Reza Aref pulled out of the race three days before the poll, saying the head of the reformist movement, former President Mohammad Khatami, had asked him to withdraw. A reformist politician, Mr Aref is also a member of the Expediency Council, a top advisory body to the Supreme Leader.

Born in 1951 in the central city of Yazd, Mr Aref has held various executive posts in post-revolutionary Iran. Seen as intelligent and well-educated, his reputation rests on his scientific achievements as much as his political record. Mr Aref studied electrical engineering at Stanford University, and currently teaches at Tehran's prestigious Sharif University of Technology.

Unlike many other reformist figures, he was not targeted by Iran's hardliners after the disputed 2009 elections. He has been a somewhat reluctant candidate in the past, having registered and subsequently withdrawn from two previous elections. Mr Aref had said that if Mr Khatami joined the 2013 election as a candidate, he would step aside.

Mr Aref's wife caused a stir in the media on the day of his registration, as she appeared by his side in more relaxed Islamic dress than other potential first ladies, rather than the traditional chador.

Mohsen Rezai

Mohsen Rezai currently holds the post of secretary of the influential expediency council headed by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, with whom he seems to have a good working relationship.

Mohsen Rezai is a close ally of the Supreme Leader

A major-general who has served for over 15 years as the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, Mr Rezai has been accused by Argentina of involvement in the 1994 attack on a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people, and is on Interpol's Wanted List.

Mr Rezai registered as a presidential candidate in 2005 but then withdrew his candidacy, and in 2009 when he came in third place with only 1.7% of the vote. Mr Rezai initially contested the outcome along with the other candidates, alleging fraud, but later withdrew from protests after the Supreme Leader decided to back Mr Ahmadinejad's victory and refused to respond to the allegations.

He is regarded as a close ally of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and is seen as a conservative, but has been highly critical of Ahmadinejad's government, particularly on economic issues.

He was born in 1954 in Masjed-e-Soleyman and holds a doctorate in economics from Tehran University.

Mohammad Gharazi

Mr Gharazi was imprisoned during the Shah's rule

Mohammad Gharazi, a name little heard on Iran's political stage, is running for president for the first time. He is arguably the most low-key candidate in this election round, having been away from the country's political scene since 1997.

The Guardian Council's decision to approve Mr Gharazi to stand in the election took Iran's media by surprise. He was quoted as saying that he had neither a political party, nor any money to spend on a campaign.

He is best described as a moderate figure and is running under the campaign slogan of "government of no inflation".

Mr Gharazi was born in the central city of Isfahan in 1941 and studied engineering in Iran and France. He was politically active during the Shah's rule, as a result of which he was sent to prison in 1971 and later moved abroad.

He has had a varied political career in Iran since the 1980s, serving as oil minister, telecommunications minister and as governor of Iran's southern province of Khuzestan and western province of Kordestan.

 

                                                                        The supreme leader will ratify the vote on 3 August

Q&A: Iran's 2013 elections

Iranians go to the polls to elect a new president on Friday in a contest devoid of opposition candidates.

Eight contenders made it through a rigorous vetting process that eliminated 678 hopefuls, although two subsequently dropped out.

There are no political parties in the conventional sense, but the seven candidates identify with broad movements in the Iranian political system.

Four are conservatives who profess absolute loyalty to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The three remaining candidates are cautious reformers.

Is President Ahmadinejad standing again?

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already served his maximum two consecutive terms, and so cannot stand this year. His win in the controversial 2009 presidential election was endorsed by Ayatollah Khamenei after mass protests were crushed with great violence, but the two have fallen out publicly in the ensuing four years.

This time round Mr Ahmadinejad's protege Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei failed to get through vetting.

The Khamenei group dub them a "deviant current" that prizes Iranian nationalism over "pure Islam", so the contest will be between ultra-loyalists and moderate reformers.

Who are the candidates?

The most prominent pro-Khamenei candidate is Saeed Jalili, the secretary of the National Security Council and Iran's chief negotiator in the continuing stand-off with the United Nations and the West over its nuclear programme.

Also standing from this camp are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the energetic mayor of Tehran, Ali Akbar Velayati, a veteran Khamenei aide, and Mohsen Rezai, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards who has been on Interpol's wanted list since 2007 over the bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in 1994.

The reform candidates are former Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref, former nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani, the only cleric in the race, and Mohammad Gharazi, a low-profile ex-minister who is campaigning on a "no-inflation" programme.

Who didn't make it through the vetting process?

The vetting process is meant to "prevent corruption and deviation", according to one jurist. Presidential hopefuls must pass an initial assessment by the Election Board, which checks them against police, court and registry records for piety and loyalty to the Islamic Republic.

Then they move on to the Guardian Council of 12 Muslim clergymen and jurists, which is appointed by the supreme leader and parliament.

Critics see the council as a method of handpicking loyal candidates. The most obvious victims of the process this time round were supporters of President Ahmadinejad and any high-profile reformers with a real chance of winning the election.

The two reform candidates from the 2009 election - Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi - have been under house arrest since contesting the results of that poll, and former President Mohammad Khatami declined to stand.

The disqualification of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in May finally left supporters of the post-2009 liberal Green Movement divided about whether to bother voting in the election at all.

This could lead to a low turnout and undermine the credibility of the whole presidential election.

Are the authorities worried about a low turnout?

Events would suggest that they are. They have taken the unprecedented step of scheduling local council elections for the same day, along with by-elections for the Assembly of Experts - a group of clerics that appoints the supreme leader.

The authorities hope that combining the three elections will boost the vote, especially as official statistics show that turnout in local elections is often relatively high.

What are the main election issues?

The question that most concerns voters is the dire state of the economy, hard-hit by years of sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.

All candidates have promised to improve the economy and condemned President Ahmadinejad's stewardship, with the hardliners emphasising internal solutions like improving management, increasing privatisation and fighting corruption.

The reformers talk cautiously about improving relations with the rest of the world, although Mr Reza Aref has been more forthright in condemning the hold that vested interests like the Revolutionary Guards have over sectors of the economy.

No candidate questions the wisdom of the nuclear programme, which is the reason for the crippling sanctions.

How does the election work?

If no candidate wins 50.1 per cent of the vote in the first round, a run-off will be held on 21 June between the top two candidates.

The supreme leader will ratify the vote on 3 August before the new president takes the oath in parliament. This emphasises the fact that the president is subordinate to the supreme leader in all matters.

Has the media coverage been fair?

The election law allows all candidates equal access to state broadcast media, and the live television debates have featured them all.

But this comes against a background of a relentless crackdown on freedom of ｅxpression since the 2009 election, which was stepped up in early 2013.

Many reform newspapers have been shut down, access to the internet and foreign broadcasters restricted, and journalists detained.

The social media are full of candid debate, but their influence outside the major cities is debatable.

Who is the likely winner?

Opinion polling in Iran is an unreliable affair with small or unrepresentative sampling, and so it is difficult to rate the candidates with any degree of confidence.

News websites in the country run their own informal polls, and these have shown a strong lead for moderate reformer Hassan Rowhani after three rounds of televised presidential debates.

With the conservative camp split among three candidates, this could mean Mr Rowhani forcing a run-off vote.

Nonetheless, the widespread belief that the 2009 election was rigged has prompted caution among most Iranian observers about whether any of the anti-establishment candidates would be allowed to make it through to the run-off, let alone win.