Iran's ex-president Ahmadinejad registers to run in presidential elections, state TV says

[Almost Heaven]

Iran's hardliner former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has registered to run for president in the country's upcoming snap elections organized after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Iran's state television reported on Sunday.

The country's cleric-led Guardian Council will vet candidates and publish the list of qualified ones on June 11.

Ahmadinejad previously served as president from 2005 to 2013. The Guardian Council barred Ahmadinejad from running again in 2017, a year after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned him that entering the race was "not in his interest and that of the country," Reuters reported.

Tensions deepened between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei when Ahmadinejad advocated for checks on the supreme leader's authority and called for free elections.

Previously, Khamenei supported Ahmadinejad after his 2009 re-election caused protests in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds arrested.

Iran's ex-president Ahmadinejad registers to run in presidential elections, state TV says

Iran's ex-president Ahmadinejad is running in the country's upcoming snap elections despite tensions with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

www.jpost.com

 

[Margery]

He was too soft for their liking. Maybe now they'll be desperate. He's no nice guy. He's a die hard "Twelver" meaning that he believes in the 12th Imam prophecies, and wants to bring on the return of the 12th Imam by causing a world wide holocaust.

Which says a lot about Raisi if Ahmadinejad is the "softer" choice.

But "free elections" --- that would be a stretch for the mullahs. They won't loosen their grip unless they are forced to.