NCRI – By approving the qualification of Saeed Jalili as a candidate, Khamenei met the minimum demands of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and thwarted his problem making actions.
Jalili was one of the main members of Ahmadinejad’s faction in 2005 and Ahmadinejad insisted that he became his foreign minister.
In 2007, when a conflict between Ahmadinejad and Ali Larijani on nuclear issue arose, at the suggestion of Ahmadinejad, Saeed Jalili replaced Ali Larijani on the nuclear issue in the security council.
In recent years, the conservatives took a position against Ahmadinejad, but Saeed Jalili was one of the few conservatives who took no position against him.
In Jalili’s election campaign, Ahmadinejad’s Guidance Minister, together with some government supporters, participated. Jalili’s election slogan was the same as Ahmadinejad’s. It is said that a branch of IRGC supports Saeed Jalili and say he is more favored by Khamenei.
The latest state of election arrangements
Following the disqualification of Rafsanjani and Rahim Mashaei, 8 candidates remained on the scene.
The 1+2 coalition: In a meeting with mullah Mahdavi Kani, the three candidates, Gholamali Hadad Adel, Ali Akbar Velayati and Mohammad Bagher Gahlibaf announced that they would all remain as candidates for now, although they were supposed to introduce only one candidate.
The state of these 8 candidates are as following:
1) Hadad Adel: He is head of the conservative faction in the parliament. A faction of the Persistence Front supports Hadad Adel after Bagheri Lankarani was disqualified, but the majority of this band supports Saeed Jalili. Thus Hadad Adel has the least vote amongst the three candidates of 1+2 coalition.
2) Ali Akbar Velayati: He has the support of the Society of Combatant Clergy and Society of Seminaries. They prefer him over Saeed Jalili. The followers of Imam and the Leader (consisting of 14 traditional right wing groups) also support Velayati.
3) Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf: It is said that General Mohammad Ali Jafari, head commander of the IRGC, and General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Qods force, support Ghalibaf. Also, some members of the Velayat followers’ faction in the parliament support him.
Because of the stand he took after 2009, Ghalibaf tried to earn the support of reformists and technocrats, but after Rafsanjani’s candidacy, Ghalibaf felt he had lost their support; so in order to earn more support in the IRGC and its bodies, he took a stand against Rafsanjani.
He then revealed he sent in the Basij forces in the students crackdown in University alley and his direct and active involvement in the repression of the 2009 uprising. This resulted in the loss of votes he could have earned after the disqualification of Rafsanjani.
It should be noted that the Persistence Front and Ahmadinejad’s government are in conflict with Ghalibaf and do not support him.
4) Saeed Jalili, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the mullahs’ regime and the Chief Nuclear Negotiator, has registered as an independent candidate. He is supported by the Persistence Front after Bagheri Lankarani was disqualified. It is said that he has influence in the IRGC body. Ahmadinejad and his supporters would vote for Jalili.
5) Mohsen Rezaei has registered as an independent candidate. The Perseverance party supports him. This movement has the support of 30 members of the parliament. He also has some support among the IRGC but the two groups, the Society of Combatant Clergy and Society of Seminaries, and the Persistence Front, do not support him.
6) Mohammad Gharazi has registered as an independent candidate but since he has been away from the political scene his presence is not serious and no specific movement within Khamenei’s groups support him.
7) Mullah Hassan Rowhani: A faction of conservatives supports him.
8) Mohammad Reza Aref entered the election with the slogan of reform. He is close to Mohamad Khatami.
The policy of Rafsanjani and the reformists towards the election is not yet clear after Rafsanjani was disqualified.
Mohammad Shraiatmadari, who was disqualified, was a reformists’ candidate. There were some efforts to form a coalition between Mohammad Reza Aref and Hassan Rowhani so that Aref would withdraw in favor of Rowhani, but as long as the policy of reformists and Khatami towards the election on one side and Rafsanjani’s policy on the other side are not determined, this coalition will not form.
