Some Iranians have settled on Abdolnasser Hemmati, a former central-bank chief, as a protest candidate. He could still be disqualified by the Guardian Council
There are no free elections in Iran, where clerics wield ultimate authority and candidates may be disqualified for the flimsiest of reasons. Even by these standards, though, the presidential election scheduled for June 18th is shaping up as a farce. Nearly 600 candidates applied to replace Hassan Rouhani, who took office in 2013 and is barred by term limits from running again. The Guardian Council, a group of clerics and lawyers who vet candidates, allowed only seven on the ballot.
This is not meant to be an election, in other words. Rather it is meant as a coronation of Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the judiciary and a staunch hardliner who helped orchestrate the mass execution of political prisoners in the 1980s. Even he seems a bit embarrassed by the brazenness of the rigging. “We should make a more competitive election scene,” he said last month. Mr Rouhani was more direct, calling the election “a corpse”.
There may be little risk of that. Many Iranians seem inclined simply to stay at home. A survey published earlier this month by a semi-official agency found that 32% would not vote “under any circumstances”. Just 34% said they would definitely vote, down from 43% in mid-May, before the Guardian Council winnowed the candidates . Calls for a boycott are mounting. There are even signs of discontent inside the, some of whose officers would like to wrest more power from the clerics.
The risk of mass protests, like the ones that followed a fishy presidential election in 2009, which Mr Ahmadinejad won, seems remote. Most Iranians have lost faith in the system, reformists included. Mr Rouhani’s eight years in office brought economic decline and scant social change. Still, Mr Khamenei could have overruled the council and added more candidates to drum up enthusiasm. He chose not to.
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