Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has registered for re-election.
Addressing reporters after filing for the May 19 ballot, Rouhani said he had fulfilled pledges during his first term, with an improved economy and new projects. He cited a $20 billion dollar initiative to be inaugurated in the port city of Assaluyeh in southern Iran next week.
Rouhani pointed to July 2015 nuclear agreement as an essential breakthrough and said, “The same people who struggled day and night for this agreement should continue down its path until the last steps.”
He continued, “In terms of national and international security, the ominous shadow of war [over the country] has disappeared and with people-based security, we are witnessing rather unprecedented security in the history of Iran [and] in the turbulent region of the Middle East today.”
The man likely to be Rouhani’s main challenger, senioer cleric Ebrahim Raisi, then registered his candidacy.
Raisi supported the Supreme Leader’s declaration of a self-sufficient Resistance Economy, saying the national economy must be insulated from fluctuations in the global economy. He issued a vague statement on foreign policy, apart from non-recognition of Israel: “We will continue with interaction with all countries but not the occupying Zionist regime and of course such relations will be based on dignity.”
Raisi, the head of the leading religious organization Astan Quds Razavi, led the vote among five finalists in the recent vote by the new conservative-hardline bloc, the Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces.
Spokesman Marzieh Dastjerdi said on Thursday that the Popular Front will permit all five finalists to register and will decide on a single candidate at a later date. In addition to Raisi, the hopefuls are Tehran Mayor Mohammad Ghalibaf, former Education Minister Hamid Reza Haji Babaei, and former MPs Mehrdad Bazrpash and Alireza Zakani.
Raisi is also a former Attorney General and a member of the Assembly of Experts since 2006.
Earlier in the week, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a surprise declaration of candidacy. His former Vice President Hamid Baghaei also filed, although both may be blocked by the Guardian Council from standing.
