Iran election campaign kicks off as reformers seek comeback

The struggle to shake up a decade of conservative dominance over Iran’s two major political institutions has kicked off in earnest, as candidates officially begin their week-long campaigns before two important elections.

Over 6,200 candidates, including 586 women, are campaigning for a place in the country’s 290-seat parliament. In the capital Tehran, over 1000 candidates are competing for just 30 seats.

Earlier this week Iran’s interior ministry finalised the full list of approved candidates for the parliamentary election, due on 26 February, after the Guardian Council blocked a significant number of reformist contenders during the vetting process.

On the same day, Iran will also hold the election for the next Assembly of Experts, an influential clerical body in charge of appointing the supreme leader. Both elections are a battleground between hardliners already in power and moderate and pro-reform figures seeking a comeback. 

The outcome will have significant consequences for the president, Hassan Rouhani, in the remaining two years of his term and will affect his chances of seeking re-election next year. 

Despite widespread disqualifications, reformists are pulling out all the stops to make sure fewer hardliners will enter the next parliament, or Majlis, according to Mohammadreza Jalaeipour, an Iranian reformist political activist now at Harvard University.

“Reformists from all different parties have put aside their differences after many years to agree on a joint list of candidates in an unprecedented form of coalition aimed at blocking hardliners from entering the parliament,” he told the Guardian.

The reformists’ patron is former president Mohammad Khatami, who faces restrictions on his movement and activities but is leading from behind the scenes.

The reformists’ joint list of 30 candidates who they want to enter the Majlis from the capital is led by Mohammad Reza Aref, an influential figure whose decision to stand down in the 2013 presidential election in favour of Rouhani was crucial to the latter’s victory.

Also on the list is Ali Motahari, the parliament’s sole current outspoken MP – a rare conservative figure who is also critical of the ruling establishment.