One Candidate For One Seat; Raisi Vs Raisi

The Guardian Council has barred all candidates from running in the upcoming Assembly of Experts election in Iran’s South Khorasan province except President Ebrahim Raisi.

Moussa Salimi, the secretary of the election office in South Khorasan, announced Friday that of the five people that had registered to run in the election, one withdrew and three others were disqualified by the Guardian Council.

The decision leaves Raisi as the only remaining candidate in the province who can be voted for. The Guardian Council has followed a similar policy with regard to the Assembly of Experts election in other provinces as well.

In Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, only one candidate is allowed to run; in Qazvin, three seats are available for the assembly and only three candidates have been approved; in Gilan and Mazandaran, five candidates will compete for the four seats of the assembly; and in Eastern Azerbaijan, the Guardian Council has approved only six candidates while there are five seats.

The announcement came two days after Iran’s former president Hassan Rouhani, once considered to be one of the candidates for succeeding Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was barred from running for re-election at the Assembly of Experts that is tasked with electing the next leader.

Iran International TV analyst Mehdi Mahdavi Azad argued that the Iranian people are indifferent to Rouhani's disqualification after his disappointing allegiance with Khamenei and his supporters.