Iran votes in key presidential polls
TEHRAN: Iran President Hassan Rouhani staked his political future on opening Iran ever so slightly to the outside world and overcoming hard-liners’ opposition to secure a historic nuclear deal in exchange for relief from crippling sanctions.
He’ll soon find out if voters think it’s enough.
The 68-year-old cleric, a moderate within Iran’s political system, has history on his side as Iranians vote for president on Friday. No incumbent president has failed to win re-election since 1981, when supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei became president himself.
Political analysts and the scant polling data that’s available suggest Rouhani will come out on top among the four candidates left running, though an outright win is by no means assured. Failure to secure a majority Friday would send the two top vote-getters into a runoff a week later.
Working against Rouhani is a sense among many Iranians that the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Iran accept limits on its atomic energy programme, has failed to deliver an economic windfall.
Although nuclear-related sanctions were lifted, other US and other international sanctions remain in effect. That leaves banks and many big corporations wary of doing business with Iran. Unemployment, meanwhile, remains stuck in the double digits, with nearly a third of Iranian youth out of work.
Rouhani’s stiffest challenge comes from Raisi, a law professor and former prosecutor who heads an influential religious charitable foundation with vast business holdings. He is seen by many as close to Khamenei, and has even been talked about as a possible successor to him.
Mostafa Hashemitaba, a proreform figure , and Mostafa Mirsalim, a former culture minister, also remain in the race.