Overlook of political parties and candidates in upcoming Iran election (june)

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/15/298398/iran-election-political-arrangement/

On June 14th, Iran is going to have a presidential election that has international observers watching closely, and making their own predictions. The variety of factions and candidates are going to lead to interesting political developments. This election seems to be particularly close, with international observers as clueless as the citizens of Iran. While previous elections have featured two main-stream political factions called the Principlists(right leaning conservatives) and reformists (the far left) Principlists include multiple coalitions, independent candidates, and Perseverance Front; the Reformists include moderate and radical figures, s well as government affiliates. This post will give a quick overview of the groups running in the next election.

The Principlists are right-wing conservatives who hold the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution, but differences in opinions have prevented them from gaining solid ground in the election. They are divided into 3 sub-categories. The first is the Coalition of Three, which according to polls, is the most popular out of the three and represents the mainstream conservative group. The next group, the Coalition of Five, was formed from five traditionalist conservatives, including Manouchehr MOttaki, foreign Foreign Minister, and Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi head of the general inspection Office of Iran, and former Interior Minister. According to the article, analysts insist that this group has no chance of winning the presidency.

The last group of the Principlists is the Perseverance front, which are made up of political activists who strongly supported Ahmadinejad until 2010. This group also includes candidates who have held prominent positions, including MP’s Ruhollah Hosseinian and former Health Minister Kamran Baqeri-Lankarani. The Perseverance Front won an impressive hundred out of 290 seats in Parliament in the March 2012 election. Their downfall is in their indecisiveness because the group hasn’t managed to agree on a candidate.
This time around the spotlight includes some independent candidates hoping to win or make a difference. Mogsen Rezaei is the most famous of the independents, and was the former head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. He is also the current secretary of the Expediency Council, and has a loss from a previous run at the presidency. Other independent candidates have no chance of winning the election.

The Reformists are divided ino radicals and moderates. The

 moderates think Mohammad Khalami, who was president 

from 1997 to 2005, believe he should succeed Ahmadinejad. 

They think he has a shot at winning even though some analysts 

believe he might be disqualified. Moderate Reformists haven't 

decided on a nominee yet and are choosing between former



chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani, former Reformist MP

 Mostafa Kavakebian and former VP Mohammad Reza-Aref

. Former Commerce minister Mohammad Shariatmadari is 

also a Reformist potential candidate.

The current President Ahmadinejad wants to stay in power, but

 he can't run for a third term, so instead he is looking for a 

suceessor close to his views. He has been grooming Rahim 

Mashaei for presidency, who is currently influential in political 

disputes. The article concludes that Reformists and pro-

Agnadinejad political activists aren't likely to win the election in

 June. Overall the candidates seem scattered, but the high 

number of parties and candidates are going to make it a very interesting campaign for the entire world.