Editorial: The regime is allowing a reformist to run because it wants to ensure more of the same. It will take a better offer to win back the people
Masoud Pezeshkian addresses a campaign meeting in Tehran on Friday. ‘Cynics assume he has been picked precisely because he is unlikely to win.’Masoud Pezeshkian addresses a campaign meeting in Tehran on Friday. ‘Cynics assume he has been picked precisely because he is unlikely to win.’The regime is allowing a reformist to run because it wants to ensure more of the same. It will take a better offer to win back the peoplelast month was a shock.
Yet the repercussions have been muted. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for 28 June, but no one expects Raisi’s replacement. The regime’s priorities are continuity and stability. It knows it may soon have to reckon with the hostility of a second Trump administration and it faces widespread discontent at home, following the suppression of the massive Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
The last presidential election, in 2021, saw the lowest ever turnout, with only 48% of electors bothering to cast their vote. So the regime needs to look credible, and to re-engage at least parts of the public. Reformists had threatened an election boycott if none of their candidates were allowed to run. Some also think that the supreme leader may hope to curb the factionalism and infighting in conservative ranks.
Mr Qalibaf, who has repeatedly faced corruption allegations and who helped oversee violent crackdowns on students as a general and as a police chief, is seen as the consensus candidate for Iran’s two most powerful forces: the office of the supreme leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with whom he served and retains close ties.
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