Different presidential elections in Iran; an overview

Source: 
Islamic Republic News Agency
Publication date: 
May 18 2017

An analytic and statistic glance at 11 presidential elections can provide us with an incontrovertible proof of democracy in Iran. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, each Iranian individual has always had the chance to partake in the elections to vote for his/her favorite candidate from among the candidates with different political, economic, social and cultural viewpoints, in order to have a say in the future of his/her country.

So far seven people have been chosen by the Iranians as presidents for the 4-year terms in Pasteur Street (the location of the Iranian President’s office).

The twelfth-term president is to be chosen on May 19. On this occasion, we take a quick glance at the previous eleven elections: 

** * The First Elections
After the Islamic Revolution, 124 people registered to become the president and after withdrawal of some, 96 people entered the competition on January 25, 1980. 

Characters such as Abolhassan Banisadr, Ahmad Madani, Hassan Ebrahim Habibi, Kazem Sami, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, Sadeq Tabatabaei, Sadegh Khalkhali, Mohammad Mokri, Dariush Forouhar and Safar Ali Khalili were among the candidates. 

67.41 percent of the eligible voters took part in the event in which Banisadr was elected as the president to with 10,753,752 from 14,152,907 votes cast. 

*** The Second Elections
The second presidential election was held on July 24, 1981 about a year after the Iraq war on Iran had started on September 22, 1980 and Banisadr had been removed from office and had fled the country. In this election, 71 people registered as candidates and after the Guardian Council examined the qualifications, four people were confirmed as qualified: Abbas Sheibani, Ali Akbar Parvaresh, Habibollah Asgaroladi, and Mohammad Ali Rajai.

The turnout was 64.24 percent and votes cast were 14,572,493 from which Mohammad Ali Rajai had 12,770,050 and was elected as the second president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

** The Third Election
Mohammad Ali Rajaee was martyred on August 30, 1981. Thus, an early election was held. For this term, 46 candidates registered to run for office. Four candidates were finally announced as qualified by the Guardian Council: Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Ali Akbar Parvaresh, Hassan Ghafoori Fard, and Reza Zavarei.

The turnout, on the October 2, 1980 election, was 74.26 percent. 16,847,715 votes were cast, from which Ayatollah Khamenei won 16,008,579 votes and became the president.

*** The Fourth Election
This was the first time in Iran that an election was held because the presidential term had actually come to an end. In this election, 50 candidates registered for office and after examining the qualifications, the Guardian Council announced three candidates as qualified: Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Habbiboollah Asgar Oladi, and Mahmood Kashani.

The turn was 54.78 and 14,238,587 votes were cast. After the vote counting, it was announced that Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei took office for the second time with 12,205,012 votes. 

*** The Fifth Election 
At that time, Imam Khomeini had just passed away and the war had just finished. In the election, 77 people registered, and two people were announced as qualified: Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Abbas Sheybani.

The election took place on July 28, 1989. From the 54.59-percent turnout, Hashemi Rafsanjani won 15,550,430 votes out of 16,452,562 ballots with the motto of reconstruction after the Eight-Year Defense and became the fifth president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

*** The Sixth Election
For this term, 128 people registered and four were announced qualified: Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ahmad Tavakkoli, Rajabali Taheri, and Abdullad Jasbi.

50.66 of the eligible voters took part in the elections and cast 16,769,755 votes from which Hashemi Rafsanjani won 10,566,467 votes and became the second president to hold office for the second time. The event took place on June 11, 1993. 

*** The Seventh Elections
The election was held on May 23, 1997. From about 238 candidates registered four were announced as qualified: Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri, Mohammad Khatami, Reza Zavvarei, Mohammad Mohammadi-Nik (Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri).

The turnout was 79.92 percent, that is, 29,145,745 votes were cast, from which Khatami won 20,138,784 and took office for four years. 

*** The Eighth Election 
This election was held on June 8, 2001. The number of candidates was 814, from whom 10 were qualified: Mohammad Khatami, Ahmad Tavakkoli, Ali Shamkhani, Abdollah Jassbi, Mahmood Kashani, Hassan Ghafourifard, Mansoor Razavi, Shahabeddin Sadr, Ali Fallahiyan, Mojaba Hashemi Taba.

The turnout was 66.77 percent and 28,155,969 votes were cast. Khatami took office with 21,651,521 votes for the second time. 

** The Ninth Election 
The registered candidates were 1,014 from whom 6 were announced qualified by the Guardian Council: Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mahdi Karroobi, Mohsen Rezaee, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Ali Larijani. Two other candidates, Mostafa Moeen and Mohsen Mehralizadeh, were added to the list by the Supreme Leader to make it eight. Later, Mohsen Rezaee withdrew from the election and seven candidates entered the polls.

62.84 percent of the eligible voters cast their votes on July 17, 2005; none of the candidates received an outright majority so people voted in the run-off the following Friday, June 24, 2005.

The run-off was held with Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mahmood Ahmadinejad as candidates. Ahmadinejad became the president with 17,247,534 votes out of 27,958,931 votes that showed a turnout of 59.76 percent.

*** The Tenth Election
467 candidates registered from whom four were evaluated as qualified: Mahmood Ahmadinejad, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mohsen Rezaee, and Mahdi Karroobi.

The election was held on June 12, 2009. The turnout was 84.83 percent and 39,371,214 votes were cast. Mahmood Ahmadinejad took office for the second time receiving 24,592,793 votes. 

*** The Eleventh Election
In the election for the 11th president, 686 people registered and 8 were announced as qualified by the Guardian Council: Hassan Rouhani, Mohsen Rezaee, Saeed Jalili, Ali Akbar Velayati, Mohammad Bagher Qhalibaf, Mohammad Gharazi, Mohammad Reza Aref, and Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel. Later on, Aref and Haddad-Adel withdrew from the competition to limit the candidates to six. 

The turnout on June 14, 2013’s election was 72.94 percent, i.e. 36,821,538 votes were cast. Hassan Rouhani was elected as president with 18,651,668 votes. 

Now Iran is once again standing on the verge of another presidential election to be held on May 19, 2017 to elect the 12th president to office. The authorities in Ministry of Interior and other relevant institutions are as ready as ever to hold the election. 

Date: 19/05/2017

Source: http://www.irna.ir/en/News/82535112/