Familiar Face Emerges in Iran Vote

Scott Peterson writing for the Christian Science Monitor provides some background on Rafsanjani and his past. Scott says that Rafsanjani:

... must weigh past charges of corruption and links with political killings that led voters to rebuke him in the race for the 2000 parliament, or Majlis. Rafsanjani received the fewest votes of 30 candidates elected from Tehran, and gave up his seat two days before the first session. "The issue of corruption is still there; people will decide," says Mr. Hadian-Jazy. But many elites, who debated and destroyed him, are ready to embrace Rafsanjani despite his past.

A poll published last month, based on 32,000 questionnaires from a "government organization," found that 43 percent supported Rafsanjani - more than all others combined. Trying to head off a win by the 70-year-old Rafsanjani, hard-liners tried but failed to set an age limit for presidential contenders.

For his Iranian audience, there are frequent, vitriolic public harangues of US policy. On Sunday, Iran's official news agency reported on a speech in which Rafsanjani accused the US of waging war against Islam, and called on Muslim nations to confront America. Earlier this month, he marked the death of Pope John Paul II, saying the "world's Christians should shout in protest against the US" and tell "White House leaders that their conduct has defamed Christ." ...

Analysts say that Rafsanjani's past receptivity to social openness make him a target. Rafsanjani may also be seen as a threat to the supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. USA Today quoted Rafsanjani's son saying that, if elected, his father would change the constitution to make that post a ceremonial one, like "the king of England" - a virtual heresy in the Islamic Republic. READ MORE

"Radicals will be against every government that could take power, but if it is Rafsanjani, it will be worse than for Khatami - they hate him 1,000 times more," says Saeed Laylaz, a political analyst in Tehran. ...

"The only person who matters is the supreme leader, but the only person who can influence the supreme leader is Rafsanjani," says the European diplomat. "In the end it will boil down to a historic fight for power, for the concept of the supreme leader - that's the reason all the clerics hate [Rafsanjani]."

That is also a reason why he may appeal to reformists, if he decides to run. "Some 95 percent of the power in Iran is not elected," says Mohsen Kadivar, an opposition Islamic scholar whose views have landed him in prison. "The majority of the population will vote, if they think they can choose someone who can limit the power of the supreme leader."