Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Polarizing Ex-President of Iran, Is Barred From Running Again

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Polarizing Ex-President of Iran, Is Barred From Running Again
By THOMAS ERDBRINKAPRIL 20, 2017
TEHRAN — A council that vets Iran’s political candidates disqualified former two-term president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad on Thursday — along with hundreds of others — from the presidential election next month.
Besides Mr. Rouhani, the approved candidates included Ebrahim Raisi, a prominent conservative cleric who is regarded as Mr. Rouhani’s main rival; Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf,
the conservative mayor of Tehran; Eshaq Jahangiri, a reformist first vice president; Mostafa Mirsalim, a hard-line conservative; and Mostafa Hashemitaba, a moderate.
According to the state television announcement, a total of six candidates will
be competing — all men — and include the incumbent, President Hassan Rouhani.
Political analysts in Iran are expecting the race will come down to a competition between Mr. Rouhani
and Mr. Raisi, a former judicial official accused of having been involved in the killing of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.
While Mr. Ahmadinejad’s disqualification was not unexpected, the timing of the announcement — just around midnight,
two days before what had been the scheduled unveiling of the final list of candidates — was unusual.
No official reason was given for the disqualifications in the May 19 election, which were
announced on state television Thursday night by an election official, Ali Asghar Ahmadi.
In office from 2005 to 2013, Mr. Ahmadinejad is not the first former president to be barred from seeking the office again.