If elected, Raisi will become the first serving Iranian president who was sanctioned by the US government in 1988 for participating in the mass execution of political prisoners before taking office, and his time as the head of Iran’s internationally criticized judicial institution. The world’s top executioner.

It will also firmly control the hardliners of the entire Iranian government, as negotiations in Vienna continue to try to save Tehran’s ragged nuclear agreement with world powers because it enriches uranium to the point where it is closest to weapon-level.

Tensions between the United States and Israel remain high, and they are believed to have carried out a series of attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and assassinated scientists who created their military atomic program decades ago.

Voting began at 7 am local time. After a group led by Khamenei banned hundreds of candidates, including reformists and candidates allied with Rouhani, the public was generally indifferent. Khamenei held a ceremonial vote in Tehran and he urged the public to participate.

Turnout rate is expected to be very low

Khamenei said: “Through the participation of the people, the country and the Islamic rule system will win huge victories on the international stage, but the people themselves will benefit first.” “Come on, choose and vote.”

Wearing a black headscarf, Raisi indicated in Shia tradition that he was a direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and later voted in a mosque in southern Tehran, waving to those who gathered to vote.

In Iran, which has a population of more than 80 million, there are more than 59 million eligible voters. However, the Iranian student voting agency associated with the country estimates that the turnout rate is only 42%, which will be the lowest level since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 in the country.

Concerns about low turnout have some warnings that Iran may be moving from an Islamic republic – an elected civilian-led government overseen by the top leader of Shia clergy – to a country more strictly regulated by its top leader. . As the supreme leader, Khamenei has the final decision on all national affairs and oversees his defense and atomic programs.

“This is unacceptable,” said former President Mohammed Khatami, a reformist who tried to change his theocracy from within during his eight-year tenure. “How will this fit with the Republic or Islam?”

Candidates are disqualified

As far as Khamenei is concerned, he warned in a speech on Wednesday that “foreign conspiracies” were trying to keep turnout down. On Wednesday, hardliners distributed a leaflet on the streets of Tehran with the image of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani (Qassem Soleimani), who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020.

“If we don’t vote: sanctions will increase, and the United States and Israel will be encouraged to attack Iran,” the flyer warned. “Iran will be in the shadow of a Syrian-style civil war, and the ground will be ready to assassinate scientists and important figures.”

State TV also showed footage of a polling station set up in Kerman in front of Soleimani’s tomb. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, polling staff are still wearing gloves and masks, and some people wipe the ballot boxes with disinfectant.

However, the disqualification seems to be aimed at preventing anyone other than Raisi from winning the election, as Khatami did in 1997, unexpectedly defeating the hardliners favored by Khamenei. Coupled with the public’s anger against Rouhani, the 2015 nuclear agreement signed by Rouhani broke down after then President Donald Trump unilaterally let the United States withdraw from the agreement in 2018. Iran’s already weak economy has since suffered double-digit inflation and massive unemployment.

Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at risk consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft, wrote that this vote “will be the least competitive election in the history of the Islamic Republic.” “This election is very beneficial to candidates from the theocracy and hardliners in Iran’s political spectrum; there is almost no need for more obvious forms of election fraud, which is characteristic of the turbulent re-election of Ahmadinejad in 2009.”

The decision to restrict participation is because whoever wins is likely to serve two four-year terms like almost every Iranian president since the revolution. This means they may be at the helm of one of the most critical moments in the country in decades-the death of the 82-year-old Khamenei.

There has been speculation that Raisi may be a contender for the position, and Khamenei’s son Mojtaba is believed to have close ties to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards.