Re-elected Rohani offers freer society
beirut — President Hasan Rohani pledged on Saturday to open Iran to the world and deliver freedoms its people have yearned for, throwing down a defiant challenge to his hardline opponents after securing a decisive re-election for a second term.
Rohani, long known as a cautious and mild-mannered establishment insider, reinvented himself as a bold champion of reform during the election campaign, which culminated on Friday in victory with more than 57 per cent of the vote. His main challenger, hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi, received 38 per cent.
In his first televised speech after the result, Rohani appeared to openly defy conservative judges by praising the spiritual leader of the reform camp, former president Mohammad Khatami. A court has banned quoting or naming Khatami on air.
“Our nation’s message in the election was clear: Iran’s nation chose the path of interaction with the world, away from violence and extremism,” Rohani said. He promised to serve as president for all Iranians, not just those who voted for him. The re-election is likely to safeguard the nuclear agreement Rohani’s government reached with global powers in 2015, under which most international sanctions have been lifted in return for Iran curbing its nuclear programme.
beirut — Iranians yearning for more freedom at home and less isolation abroad have emphatically re-elected President Hasan Rohani, throwing down a challenge to the conservative clergy that still holds ultimate sway.
Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli declared Rohani’s victory on Saturday on state TV, citing figures giving Rohani about 57 per cent of the vote in Friday’s election, compared to 38 per cent for his main rival, hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi.
Although the powers of the elected president are limited by those of unelected Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who outranks him, the scale of Rohani’s victory gives the pro-reform camp a strong mandate to seek the sort of change that hardliners have thwarted for decades.
Rohani’s opponent Raisi, a protege of Khamenei, had united the conservative faction and had been tipped as a potential successor to the 77-year-old supreme leader. His defeat leaves the conservatives without an obvious flag bearer.
The re-election is likely to safeguard the nuclear agreement Rohani’s government reached with global powers in 2015, under which most international sanctions have been lifted in return for Iran curbing its nuclear programme.
And it delivers a setback to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the powerful security force which controls a vast industrial empire in Iran. They had thrown their support behind Raisi to safeguard their interests.
“We won. We did what we should do for our country. Now it is Rohani’s turn to keep his promises,” said coffee shop owner Arash Geranmayeh, 29, reached by telephone in Tehran.
But Rohani, 68, faces the same restrictions on his ability to transform Iran that prevented him from delivering substantial social change in his first term, and that thwarted reform efforts by one of his twoterm predecessors, Mohammad Khatami.
The supreme leader has veto power over all policies and ultimate control of the security forces. Rohani has been unable to secure the release of reformist leaders from house arrest. Courts have imposed a ban on the publication of the words — or even images — of the earlier reformist president, Khatami.
“The last two decades of presidential elections have been short days of euphoria followed by long years of disillusionment,” said Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment who focuses on Iran.
“Democracy in Iran is allowed to bloom only a few days every four years, while autocracy is evergreen.”
Rohani, known for decades as a mild-mannered member of the establishment, reinvented himself for his re-election campaign as an ardent reformist, seeking to stir up the passions of young, urban voters yearning for change. At times he broke rhetorical taboos, openly attacking the human rights record of the security forces and the judiciary. During one rally he referred to hardliners as “those who cut out tongues and sewed mouths shut”. In a debate last week he accused Raisi of seeking to “abuse religion for power”. The language at the debate earned a rare public rebuke from Khamenei, who called it “unworthy”.
The contentiousness of the campaign could make it more difficult for Rohani to secure the consent of hardliners to carry out his agenda, said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies programme at Stanford University.
Among the congratulatory messages sent to Rohani by world leaders, Iran’s battlefield ally Syrian President Bashar Al Assad looked forward to cooperating “to strengthen the security and stability of both countries, the region and the world”. The biggest prize for Rohani’s supporters is the potential to set Iran’s course for decades by influencing the choice of a successor to Khamenei. —