Iran’s ex-President Ahmadinejad among political heavyweights vying for presidency

Iran is heading for presidential elections scheduled for June 18 that will determine a successor to the incumbent President Hassan Rouhani. The president is considered a moderate politician who led Iran into the 2015 nuclear deal. He cannot seek re-election since he is barred from running for a third consecutive term.

Yet, there is no shortage of those willing to take his place. One of them is the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hardliner who saw Iran’s relations with the West souring over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. As a result, the country was slapped with several rounds of UN sanctions. However, the former president still has sway in some parts of the country.

Surrounded by a crowd of his supporters, Ahmadinejad arrived at the Iranian Interior Ministry to register for the race on Wednesday. The ex-president, who has since sought to present himself as a more “centrist” politician, was already barred from running back in 2017.

He criticized elections in Iran as an “empty drum” and said that another disqualification, which is not unlikely, would only prove him right. “If I’m disqualified, I won’t support the elections and I won’t vote,” he said.

Ahmadinejad, however, is not considered to be a likely frontrunner in the race that is about to start. The last registration day saw two Iranian political heavyweights – the ultraconservative Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi and moderately conservative former parliament speaker Ali Larijani – submitting their candidacies as well.