Iran’s Presidential ‘Selection’

Iran is in the final phase of its presidential “selection” Friday to determine who will succeed Hassan Rouhani, who is term-limited from running again. The process is more of a selection than an election because Iran’s theocratic leaders hand-pick the candidates who are allowed to run.

Article by James Phillips at Daily Signal.

Only seven of the 592 candidates who threw their hats and turbans into the ring were permitted to run. The rest were vetoed by the Guardian Council, a 12-member body that vets candidates, weeding out those who are deemed insufficiently loyal to the hard-line faction that forms the base of support for Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The president plays a secondary role in Iran’s hybrid theocratic/democratic political system, in which the unelected supreme leader controls decisions on the most important issues. As the leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution, he outranks the leader of the state under Iran’s doctrine of velayat-e faqih(the guardianship of the jurist) a Shiite Islamic concept that justifies clerical rule.

Iran’s president operates along a narrow bandwidth, focusing primarily as a caretaker on domestic and economic issues.

The supreme leader controls Iran’s judiciary, government media, and security forces, including the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.  He calls the shots on all vital defense and foreign policy issues, including the nuclear issue.

Iran’s president is the public face of the regime, but plays a subservient role within the theocratic political system.

Anointed Successor

Rather than risk free elections, Iran’s beleaguered regime has tightened control, particularly since the disastrous 2009 presidential election. That election ignited widespread protests over the disputed vote count, which handed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term.

This time, the Guardian Council took no chances and aggressively whittled down the field of contenders to guarantee the victory of the supreme leader’s preferred candidate: Ebrahim Raisi.

Raisi, 60, the ultrahard-line chief of Iran’s judiciary, is a protégé of Khamenei who is being groomed as his likely successor as supreme leader.

After the withdrawal of three candidates earlier this week, Raisi’s chief competitor likely is Abdolnaser Hemmati, former head of Iran’s central bank, who has limited political experience.

Hemmati, 65, is a pragmatic hard-liner aligned with Rouhani, the current president. He hopes to attract the votes of Iranians eager for reform, economic revival, and improved relations with the outside world.

Hemmati, an economist, claims to be the best candidate for addressing Iran’s urgent economic problems.  But he has failed to attract much support.

A recent poll indicates that Hemmati is the first choice of only 4.2% of voters, although he probably has expanded his support after other candidates dropped out of the race.

Reputation for Repression

Iran’s presidential election essentially is a choice between hard-liners and ultrahard-liners.  All of the prominent reformist candidates were disqualified.

The lack of a genuine reformist alternative and deep popular disillusionment with the repressive and unpopular regime have spurred calls for a boycott on voting.

Another recent poll projected a 42% turnout among the country’s 59 million eligible voters, which would be a historic low for a regime whose political legitimacy increasingly is questioned by its own people.

For Americans interested in the Iranian elections, it should be noted that the opposition has described Raisi as a “stone-hearted killer” with a “40-year track record of repression.”

Media reports have ascribed to the mid-ranking cleric a key role in the “death commissions” that reportedly carried out mass executions in 1988 of an estimated 5,000 to 30,000 political prisoners.

The executions were denounced as the “greatest crime in the history of the Islamic republic” by Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was considered to be the likely successor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s 1979 revolution. But Montazeri was sidelined.

In 2019, the United States sanctioned Raisi for what the Treasury Department called “his administrative oversight over the executions of individuals who were juveniles at the time of their crime and the torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners in Iran, including amputations.”

‘None Will Be Safe’

Raisi has sought to soften his image by mounting highly publicized campaigns against corruption that target political rivals, but not his own supporters.

Raisi also seemed to call for the assassination of President Donald Trump in early January, on the first anniversary of the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Trump ordered the drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3, 2020, that killed Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.

 “The enemy should not think that if someone [who] appeared in the guise of the American president [and] is responsible for the assassination, they will be safe from justice,” Raisi said a year later. “None will be safe anywhere in the world. The resistance is determined to take revenge.”

The selection of Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s president will have significant consequences for Iran’s policies on external terrorism and internal repression.

New Conservative Network Seeks Crowdfunding Help

They say we have to go big or go home. We’re trying to go big and bring the patriotic truth the the nation, but we need help.

Readers may or may not realize that over the past year, we’ve been bringing more conservative news and opinion outlets under our wing. Don’t take our expansion as a sign of riches; all of the “acquisitions” have been through sweat and promises of greater things to come for all involved. As a result, we’ve been able to bring together several independent media sites under a unified vision of preventing America from succumbing to the progressive, “woke,” Neo-Marxist ideologies that are spreading like wildfire across America.

The slow and steady reopening of America is revealing there was a lot more economic hardship brought about from the Covd-19 lockdowns than most realize. While we continue to hope advertising dollars on the sites go up, it’s simply not enough to do things the right way. We are currently experiencing a gap between revenue and expenses that cannot be overcome by click-ads and MyPillow promos alone (promo code “NOQ” by the way).

To overcome our revenue gap and keep these sites running, our needs fluctuate between $3000-$7000 per month. In other words, we’re in the red and hemorrhaging.

The best way you can help us grow and continue to bring the truth to the people is by donating. We appreciate everything, whether a dollar or $10,000. Anything brings us closer to a point of stability when we can hire writers, editors, and support staff to make the America First message louder. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report and the other sites in the network going.

Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker

Bitcoin: 32SeW2Ajn86g4dATWtWreABhEkiqxsKUGn