Iran’s 2013 Presidential Election: Its Meaning and Implications

RAND Corporation 

Iran’s June 14, 2013, election will take place in the shadow of the turbulent 2009 presidential election, after which Iran witnessed the largest protests since the 1979 revolution. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards, keen to prevent a replay of 2009, are attempting to “engineer” the election in order ensure a loyal president. Khamenei has marginalized the reformists and suppressed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his preferred candidate, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. The only serious challenger to the political status quo may have been former president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was disqualified by the Guardian Council on May 21, 2013. Other prominent candidates, such as Ali Akbar Velayati, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, are closely aligned with Khamenei. 

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