The Iranian presidential elections will be on May 19th. Current President Rouhani - who is neither a reformist nor a conservative, yet who has aided Iran to alleviate sanctions in relations to the JCPOA - will be running for re-election, but his victory is not guaranteed. His main opponent is a conservative who runs one of Iran's holiest shrines, and thus perhaps has the endorsement of the Supreme Leader. Thoughts about the election? Possible predictions? Any other comments regarding Iran?
a n a s t a s i a
Oct 13, 2018Currently the economic and numismatic situation in Greece is tremendously deplorable. The substantive amounts of refugees have culminated in the chaos that has ubiquitously existed after the bailout referendum. Unemployment has risen to 21%, one of the highest figures in Europe. The national debt of Greece places the country in second position worldwide. And regardless of the wage levels, approximately 60% of the gross pay is removed due to extreme income taxes. The prime minister has essentially no diplomatic attitude and has further contributed to the economic crisis that plagues the state. Despite of all the benefits of being a member of the EU, Greece decided to not accept the Troika help, which would possibly assist them in paying any of their debts, while Grexit almost happened. Tax evasion continues to exponentially proliferate, while social welfare is at its lowest. Myriads of people starve, education is limited and work positions have ceased to develop.
The election is this Friday!
Here are a few articles to peruse:
- https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/iran/2017-05-14/kingmaker-irans-presidential-election
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/world/middleeast/a-look-at-the-presidential-candidates-in-iran.html
- http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/12/irans-rouhani-attacks-hardliners-in-final-debate-before-presidential-election.html
The current supreme leader is 77 years old, meaning Iran has another few presidential terms (each are 5 years long) left before they need a new supreme leader and from what I've gathered, the Assembly of Experts (the group that chooses the next supreme leader) will most likely show bias in who's elected next. I think that this election is a lot bigger than just who's going to be president, but who's going to succeed Khameini in the coming years. Who's elected next may very well end up holding the most power in Iran soon. This is important because that will decide a lot of what direction Iran will take in the coming years.
Also, Rouhani recently criticised the Revolutionary Guard for conducting missile tests that would have gone against the agreement they've made with their nuclear program. This could have some influence in how the election goes because the guard reports directly to the supreme leader, and while there are elections, they aren't transparent.
I highly recommend this article from the NYT that takes a bit of a deeper look into Iran's political system: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/world/middleeast/iran-presidential-election-democracy.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fthe-interpreter&action=click&contentCollection=world®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection