Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Sunday as a candidate for the presidential election, seeking to regain the country’s top political position after a helicopter crash killed the nation’s president.
The populist former leader’s registration puts him in the spotlight. Ahmadinejad’s attempt to run in 2021 was barred by authorities.
Ahmadinejad’s return comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program and its wide-reaching crackdowns on dissent.
Meanwhile, Iran’s support of militia forces throughout the wider Mideast have been in increased focus as Yemen’s Houthi rebels attack ships in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Ahmadinejad is the most prominent candidate to register so far. Speaking after his registration, he vowed to seek “constructive engagement” with the world and improved economic relations with all nations.
“The economic, political, cultural and security problems are beyond the situation in 2013,” Ahmadinejad said, referring to the year he left the presidency after two terms.
After speaking to journalists in front of a bank of 50-odd microphones, Ahmadinejad said, his finger in the air: “Long live the spring, long live Iran!”
Before his arrival at Iran’s Interior Ministry, his supporters chanted and waved Iranian flags. They quickly surrounded Ahmadinejad, 67, shouting: “God is the greatest!”
He descended the stairs at the ministry, showing his passport as is custom to dozens of photographers and video journalists on hand for the registration process. As a woman processed his candidacy, he sat, turned to the journalists, nodding and smiling for the cameras. He was expected to give remarks after concluding his registration.
An election is planned June 28 to replace President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May along with seven other people.
In 2017, Ahmadinejad was warned that his standing for office again would be a “polarized situation” that would be “harmful for the county.”
His candidacy was rejected in 2021 by the 12-member Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists. That panel has never accepted a woman or anyone calling for radical change to the country’s governance.
That panel could reject Ahmadinejad again. However, the race to replace Raisi has yet to draw a candidate with clear, overwhelming support.