Iran, Tehran, June 13 /Trend T. Jafarov/
This year's presidential elections in Iran will totally be decided among principlists, Iranian political expert Ebrahim Rezaee told Trend, commenting on the upcoming presidential elections in the country.
The 11th presidential elections in Iran will be carried out tomorrow, with 6 candidates gathering votes for one, who will be elected as the country's president for the next 4 years.
Rezaee said that after candidates Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel and Mohammad Reza Aref withdrew their candidacies, the remaining candidates are all principlists, and there is no need for them to compete with reformists.
"Previously, the principlists agreed to withdraw from the competition in case if a reformist candidate remains to continue the race, but it didn't happen," he said.
There are six candidates participating in the current presidential elections: Secretary of Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili, former Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Velayati, Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, President of the Strategic Research Center of the Expediency Council Hassan Rohani, and former Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Gharazi.
"For instance, at the last presidential elections in 2009 or prior to that, in 2005, traditionally one reformist candidate competed against one principlist candidate," Rezaee said. "This year, as a result of the current race, the reformist parties withdrew because they've become so weak they couldn't compete with principlists directly."
Rezaee believes that was the reason why candidate Mohammad Reza Aref left the presidential race, and all reformists started expressing their support for another candidate - Hassan Rouhani.
"This is while Rouhani is actually a principlist. He hasn't thus far announced it clearly, but his history shows that he is a principlist. He is a member of the Central Council of Soceity of Combatant Clergy, headed with Ayatollah Mahdavi Kami, who is the founder of traditional principlism," Rezaee explained.
He went on to note that during the 6th parliamentary election in Iran, Hassan Rouhani was in among principlists.
"The reformists support Rouhani because they think he is more tolerant to them than Saeed Jalili, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Ali Akbar Velayati," Rezaee said. "Another reason for them to support him is because if he wins, he could use some reformists in his cabinet."
The primary results of the June 14 presidential election will be announced by the Iranian Interior Ministry, and would be then approved by the Guardian Council.
Such countries as Azerbaijan, Germany, Australia, Russia, Japan, UK, UAE, France, Turkey, Iraq, Ukraine, USA, Syria, China will be covering the elections in Iran.