Presidential elections were held in Iran on 19 May 2017 alongside local elections. Candidate registration took place from 11 to 15 April 2017. Incumbent president Hassan Rouhani was eligible to run for re-election. His main rivals were the conservatives' top candidate Ebrahim Raisi, the Islamic Coalition Party's Mostafa Mir-Salim and Mostafa Hashemitaba who was an independent.
Rouhani was re-elected for a second term. According to results announced by the Interior Ministry, Rouhani received 59% of the vote, while his closest rival Ebrahim Raisi received 39%. Rouhani was re-inaugurated on 5 August 2017 taking the oath of office for the second time at the Parliament of Iran.
Electoral system
The president of Iran is elected using the two-round system. To win in the first round, a candidate must receive more than 50% of all votes cast (both valid and invalid).
Eligibility
Any Iranian citizen above 18 years of age was able to register as a presidential candidate. An institution called the Election Monitoring Agency (EMA) and managed by the Guardian Council vets registered candidates and approves a handful to run in the election. The Guardian Council does not publicly announce the reason a particular candidate is rejected, although those reasons are explained to each candidate. Women who register as candidates have invariably been excluded from standing for election by the council.
Timeline
According to the official dates announced on 1 April 2017 by the Ministry of Interior:
- 11 April – Start of the election process with the Minister of the Interior's order
- 11–13 April – Governors establish Executive Boards
- 11–15 April – Registration period for candidates
- 15 April – Registration ends at 18:00 IRDT
- 16 April – Guardian Council begins vetting registered candidates
- 20 April – Guardian Council addresses objections from disqualified candidates
- 20 April – Final list of candidates announced
- 21 April – Final candidates launch official campaigns
- 17 May – End of campaigns
- 19 May – Election date
Candidates
Registration and vetting process
During the five days period, a total of 1,636 individuals put their name to run for president, an increase over the 686 candidates in the previous election in 2013. Among the candidates was a record number of 137 women. Hundreds of the applicants were ordinary people with no political background and clearly lacked the criteria cited in the article 115 of the constitution, which is being considered among "religious and political rejal" ("men" or "personalities", according to different interpretations). Many criticized the law, which allows almost anyone to register to run. Some intended to gain public attention, including political prisoners Mehdi Khazali and former MP Ghasem Sholeh-Saadi, a millionaire property developer applied from Australia Alireza Ahmadian and some women tried to challenge the judicial interpretation of word rejal as "men", most notably Azam Taleghani.
On 20 April 2017 the Guardian Council announced a list of 6 approved candidates. The list contains incumbent president Hassan Rouhani, incumbent vice president Eshaq Jahangiri, Astan Quds Razavi custodian Ebrahim Raisi, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mostafa Mir-Salim and Mostafa Hashemitaba.
Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his vice president Hamid Baghaei were disqualified. Ahmadinejad, who was advised by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei not to run for the election, wrote a letter in September 2016 to him, pledging that he would not run. On 11 February 2017, he officially declared that he would not back any candidate, however, in a video released on 19 March 2017 he announced his support for Hamid Baghaei and surprised observers by himself registering to run.
Mohammad Gharazi was also among those disqualified, despite being approved as a candidate in 2013.
Approved candidates
Withdrawals
- On 15 May 2017, Ghalibaf withdrew and endorsed Ebrahim Raisi.
In his statement, Ghalibaf accused current president Hassan Rouhani of financial mismanagement and asserted that he and his supporters were "revolutionary opportunists." The statement read:
The fight against pseudo-revolutionary opportunists has become highly costly, because this current is gnawing at the roots of the Revolution like a termite...[They] are not only at odds with the intellectual fundaments of original revolutionaries, but also represent a current whose material interests are at risk.
- On 16 May 2017, candidate Eshaq Jahangiri urged people to vote for Hassan Rouhani in his speech in Yasuj, and dropped out of the race and endorsed Hassan Rouhani in his speech in Shiraz.
Campaign
Debates and TV programs
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) provides each candidate with 210 minutes for campaign talks on TV, and there would be three debate sessions on politics, economics, and social pressing issues aired on Channel 1. On 20 April 2017, Election Campaign Monitoring Commission announced that there would be no live debates and it will broadcast prerecorded, however, after vast criticism from candidates and Iranian people the commission revoked its decision two days later. Candidates are scheduled to air dedicated programmes on IRIB TV channels and radio stations, 555 minutes for each per candidate, and a sum of 1,470 minutes including the debates.
The election was characterised for usage of populist practices and mudslinging. The conservatives launched smear campaigns against the reformist-backed candidate Hassan Rouhani, while he initially refrained from campaigning in this way. Rouhani later changed strategy by simply attacking his rivals and the incumbent administration used fearmongering tactics to encourage people to vote.
Social media was traditionally a tool for the reformists to campaign, but the presence of conservatives during the election was unprecedented in Iranian political history.
Telegram instant messaging service, the most widely used messaging application in Iran, reportedly has more than 45 million users in a country of nearly 80 million as of April 2016. It serves as a platform for Iranians to express their political opinions and played an important role in the campaigns for the elections held in 2016 for Parliament and Assembly of Experts. Twitter is blocked in Iran, however, Iranians use proxies to tweet and those that create a buzz, then travel to Telegram channels, where "they can potentially reach a much wider audience" according to BBC.
Two months before election, Iranian Judiciary arrested some pro-Hassan Rouhani Telegram channel administrators for "crimes against public morals and publishing obscenity”.
The campaigners also heavily used Instagram and its feature of airing live videos to stream real-time campaign developments.
Tactical nomination of Jahangiri
Rouhani and I are side-by-side.
President Rouhani's ally and first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri stood in the election to support him during the campaign and in TV debates, being called as a 'fender' or 'cover candidate' by Iranian media, who will possibly withdraw in support of the incumbent president. The idea was allegedly recommended by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was a key backer of Rouhani before his death in January 2017. Another reason cited for the nomination was to have an 'alternative candidate' in case the Guardian Council disqualified Rouhani or raise his profile for a bid in 2021 election.
Jahangiri withdrew in favor of Rouhani on 16 May 2017.
Hashemitaba's endorsement of Rouhani
Candidate Mostafa Hashemitaba released a statement on 15 May 2017 and endorsed Rouhani, but refused to quit the race. He said he "will vote for the current president to help extension of this government's constructive approach".
Conservative consensus candidate
Among the approved candidates, Ebrahim Raisi, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Mostafa Mir-Salim were regarded as figures of the conservative camp, which intended to bring one single candidate for the election. Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces (JAMNA), the umbrella organization established to introduce one single consensus candidate for the conservatives finally endorsed both Raisi and Ghalibaf, and it was unclear if any of them would drop out in favor of a fellow conservative.
On 15 May 2017, Ghalibaf gave up his bid in favor of Raisi.
Islamic Coalition Party released a statement on 18 May 2017, announcing it supports Raisi's bid for presidency following the withdrawal of Mostafa Mir-Salim, despite the fact that Mir-Salim denied that he is withdrawing from the race.
Endorsements and positions
- Progress and Justice Population of Islamic Iran supported Ghalibaf before his dropout.
- The Armenian community of Iran maintained 'positive neutrality' and made no common decision on endorsing any candidate.
- The Iranian Sunni community were inclined to re-elect Hassan Rouhani according to Molavi Abdul Hamid, leading Sunni figure who has endorsed Rouhani. Strategic Council of Iran's Ahl Sunnah (RĀSĀ) and the Sunni fraction in the Iranian Parliament expressed support for him.
- Six exiled Kurdish opposition organizations declared in a joint statement that they would boycott the election. They include the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Komala, the Kurdistan Communist Party, the Kurdistan Struggle Organization, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Iranian Kurdistan Communist organization. Their call was mostly ignored among Kurds in Iran, however. The turnout of the election was 58% in Kordestan Province, around 70% in West Azerbaijan, over 75% in Kermanshah province and over 80% in Ilam province.
- Exiled People's Mujahedin of Iran and its front NCRI boycott the election.
- Reza Pahlavi, leader of the National Council of Iran and pretender to Iran's deposed throne labeled the election a "deception" and called on Iranians to boycott it.
Conduct
Voting started at 08:00 on Friday, 29 May 2017 and took place at 63,429 polling stations across Iran, as well as around 14,000 mobile ballot boxes. It involved around 1.5 million executive forces and monitors, 350,000 security forces, 70,000 inspectors, and around 100,000 representatives of local governors. After a "huge rush" of citizens to vote, the polling time was extended for several extra hours until midnight which is the latest possible time allowed by the law.
Among the citizens eligible to vote in the election, about 2.5 million lived abroad and the elections were held in 103 countries, including the United States.
Canada, which hosts at least 400,000 Iranians, does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, a situation which hindered participation of Iranian citizens. However, some traveled to the United States in order to vote.
Allegations of foreign interference
During the elections, several Iranian analysts and officials warned of a possible foreign electoral intervention.
The head of Iran's judicial system, Sadeq Larijani, warned that Iran's enemies made a "huge investment" to undermine and exploit the elections: "The enemies may want to deal a blow to the Iranian political system during the elections".
On 20 April 2017 Rustam Minnikhanov – President of Tatarstan and Vladimir Putin's envoy, met with candidate Ebrahim Raisi in Mashhad in Raisi's capacity as Head of Astan Quds Razavi. MP Alireza Rahimi questioned the meeting and asked for explanations about the reasons for it, citing alleged Russian interference in 2016 U.S. election. "The recent meeting raises the suspicion of interference in the elections, which is not appropriate", he said.
According to the official Islamic Republic News Agency, Minnikhanov also met vice president Eshaq Jahangiri in Tehran one day earlier, discussing bilateral relations.
Results
According to final results, 41,366,085 voted from a registered electorate of 56,410,234. Turnout was 73.33%. The Ministry of Interior announced results gradually after midnight (local time), after polls closed. Final results were announced on 8 June 2017.
Provincial votes
The table below displays the official vote tallies by province:
International votes
The table below displays the official vote tallies by country:
Reactions
Domestic
Tens of thousands of supporters of President Hassan Rouhani poured into the streets of Tehran to celebrate the incumbent's re-election. The Tehran Stock Exchange rallied after the election results came out, extending a recent winning streak to close almost 1% higher at its highest level in three months.
On 21 May 2017, Ebrahim Raisi wrote a letter to the Guardian Council, objecting to the results.