Iran: Army Officers Can Run for Presidential Election 2021

Iran's parliament voted Sunday to amend the presidential election law, to enable members of the Expediency Council and the Supreme National Security Council, which are dominated by hardliners, to run in the elections that will take place within six months.

Out of a total of 242 MPs present, the parliament agreed with the specific and general terms of the presidential candidates with 151 votes in favor, 35 against, and 14 abstentions.

The conservative-controlled legislature rejected the proposal, which prevents the candidacy of senior officers in the Iranian armed forces, starting with the rank of brigadier general, leaving the door open for senior army officials to compete for the presidency of the country.

The leader of the hard-line fundamentalist trend in Iran, Hassan Naqvi Hosseini, had previously announced that Saeed Jalili, the former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, is the strongest candidate in the presidential elections next year.

Earlier, fundamentalists had indicated the possibility of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who held the presidency for two terms from 2005 to 2013, but Naqwi Hosseini expected that the Guardian Council, the highest oversight body that oversees the elections, would reject his candidacy.

It is noteworthy that the name of Jalili, as the strongest candidate among the hardliners, is being proposed for the first time; they previously put forward the names of prominent candidates, including military leaders, such as Hossein Dehghan, the Iranian defense minister in Hassan Rouhani's first government, and who is currently serving as a military advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, for defense affairs.

The Iranian Supreme leader had defined the features of the next government in the country to be "young and revolutionary," while the hardliners were pushing for what they describe as a "war government" and they want a president from the ranks of the military and the Revolutionary Guards specifically.

However, despite the fundamentalists ’confidence in choosing a military president, there seems to be concerns among the regime, about the people not participating in the elections, especially after the parliamentary elections, last February witnessed the lowest popular participation rate in 4 decades, especially as it came after the suppression of popular protests last November when about 1500 demonstrators were killed and thousands were imprisoned.