Based on all indications and especially in the light of the 2009 popular uprising, this is the most important presidential election ever for the future of the Iranian regime.
Directed democracy!
In the mullahs’ regime, in the context of ‘directed democracy’ and with control of the Vali faqih, no candidate who the Supreme Leader does not approve of will see his name emerge from the ballot box.
This process entails the following steps and qualifications:
1. To become a candidate in the presidential election, the law has stipulated six conditions. The first condition is that the candidate (who has to be a male) must be a political or religious dignitary. The sixth condition is to believe in the principals of Islam, which means obedience to the Supreme Leader. This must show itself in political acts and conduct. Under the regime’s laws, this is stipulated as ‘belief by heart and practical obligation to the Supreme Leader’.
2. Approval Observation: The Guardian Council is the organ that decides whether the candidate is a political or religious dignitary and believes in principals of Islam or not. The Guardian Council will remove anyone that has the slightest deviance from the Supreme Leader.
3. According to the law, the elected candidate must be approved by the Supreme Leader. In other words, if the Supreme Leader decides, he can reject the elected President at will.
4. According to Article 110 of the Constitution, the Supreme Leader has the power to remove the president.
Implementer and Supervisor of the presidential elections
1. The implementer of the elections is the Interior Ministry. The Interior Minister is obliged to form the Interior Ministry’s Election Headquarters three months prior to the elections. This headquarters prepares the directives for the elections and after the approval of the cabinet, will implement it.
2. Supervisor of the Guardian Council: Based on Article 99 of the constitution, the Guardian Council is responsible for a full and effective supervision of all stages of the election process. It supervises all conducts and measures concerning the election process. This is a general supervision and is carried out through all phases of the the election including verification of the candidates’ qualifications, controlling the ballots and counting votes.
3. Supervisors of the Interior ministry supervise the casting of ballots on the day of election.
4. In this election, the Judiciary has for the first time established supervising teams to supervise the ballots.
Election process
After counting the votes, the Interior Ministry reports the outcome to the Guardian Council. Providing the outcome is verified by the Guardian Council, the result will be announced. If one of the candidates receives more than 50 percent of the vote, he will become the president. Otherwise the elections will go to a second round and it will be held between the two candidates with the highest votes.
Engineering the elections
A new term was introduced in the mullahs’ political lexicon from 2005 called ‘engineering the elections’. Engineering the elections means specifically planning to cheat and chose a candidate designated by Khamenei.
In the ‘election engineering’, the rank and file of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Bassij, State Security Forces, and the Ministry of Intelligence who are all under the command of the Supreme Leader play an important role in registering the vote for the candidate chosen by Khamenei.
In 2005, by executing ‘election engineering’ Khamenei was successful in appointing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was then an obscure person in the regime, as the president of the clerical regime, ‘defeating’ Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The plan was known as the Bassirat plan within the clerical regime. The key person in Bassirat plan and the ‘election engineering’ was Mojtaba Khamenei, who is son of Ali Khamenei.
Key dates
1. The Interior Minister, IRGC Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad-Najar, announced the establishment of the Interior Minister’s Election headquarters on March 18, 2013.
2. Enrolment of the presidential candidates will take place from May 7-11, 2013.
3. The qualifications of the candidates will be reviewed by the Guardian Council over five days, from May 12- 16. However, based on the law, this could be extended for another five days. This however is the normal practice of the Guardian Council. Thus, the result of the Guardian Council’s review will be provided to the Interior Ministry on May 21, 2013.
4. Subsequent to reviewing the qualifications of the nominees, the Interior Ministry will publish the names of the approved candidates on May 22 and 23.
5. The nominees can carry out their election campaigns for 20 days, beginning on May 24 and ending on June 12.
6. The election is held on June 14, 2013.
Key figures and statistics
The number of eligible voters: The Interior Ministry has not announced the number of eligible voters for this election yet. However, the number of eligible voters in the election of March 2, 2012 (the last election held in the regime. i.e. the Majils election), was announced as 48,288,799 people.
Number of polling stations: The Interior Ministry has not yet announced the number of polling stations.