Iranian Presidential Election: Campaign Promises and Criticisms

Campaign Promises in Iranian Presidential Election

The campaign billboards adorning the streets of Iran for the upcoming presidential election are filled with grand promises. Candidates pledge economic prosperity, an end to corruption, a free press, the reversal of a brain drain, and one candidate even vows to “save the citizens” from all the woes plaguing the country.

Candidate Criticisms and Attacks on Status Quo

All six candidates, consisting of five conservatives and one reformist, selected by a committee of clerics, are engaging in blistering attacks on the current state of affairs in Iran. They criticize the government’s economic, domestic, and foreign policies, condemn the violent treatment of women by the morality police, and mock the overly optimistic official assessments of Iran’s economic future as harmful delusions.

Special Presidential Election in Iran

Iran is preparing for a special presidential election on June 28 to elect a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line conservative who recently passed away in a helicopter crash. While the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, holds ultimate authority over major policy decisions in Iran, the presidency still plays a significant role in shaping the domestic agenda and influencing foreign policy.

Elections in Iran are not considered free and fair by Western standards, with candidate selection rigorously vetted by the Guardian Council, a committee of 12 clerics. Despite the controlled environment, some elections have seen competitiveness, and outcomes can be unpredictable. The current candidates were approved from a pool of 80 individuals, including seven women, with notable figures like a former president and government ministers being disqualified.

During a recent presidential debate in Tehran, candidates took turns criticizing the government for incompetence and greed, marking a departure from the usual ideological boundaries observed in past campaigns in Iran.