19 May 2017 2021 → | ||
 | ||
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Iran on 19 May 2017, However, they might be held earlier under exceptional circumstances, such as the deposition, resignation or death of the President. It will be the twelfth presidential election in Iran.
Contents
Scope of power
The President of Iran is the country's highest directly elected official, the chief of the executive branch, and the second most important position after the Supreme Leader. The armed forces, Chief judiciary system, state television, and other key governmental organizations are under the control of the Supreme Leader of Iran. It is also an informal custom that cabinet ministers for sensitive departments like foreign relations and intelligence are coordinated with the Supreme Leader. Of note, the current long-time Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has been ruling for nearly three decades, has been issuing decrees and making the final decisions on economy, environment, foreign policy, national planning such as population growth, and everything else in Iran. Khamenei also makes the final decisions on the amount of transparency in elections in Iran, and has fired and reinstated Presidential cabinet appointments.
Eligibility
Any Iranian citizen born in Iran, believing in God and the official religion of Iran (Islam), who has always been loyal to the Constitution and is above 21 years of age may register as a presidential candidate. An institution called the Election Monitoring Agency (EMA) and managed by the Guardian Council vets registered candidates (in the 2009 election 36,000 people signed up as candidates) and selects a handful to run in the election. The Guardian Council does not announce publicly the reason for rejections of particular candidates although those reasons are explained to each candidate. Females who register as candidates have invariably been excluded from standing for election by the Council.
Electoral law
One of the issues that has been raised in the pre-election debate over electoral reforms, especially regarding enforcement, situations of candidates. Executive of elections under previous law was ministry of interior (Government) and there were statements about changing of maintaining law. In addition, the law provided that the candidates must be political men and the meaning of men was not known. The changes began after the protests to the previous election. According to Iranian law, candidates more than 75 years old are eligible to run but their health issues must be checked by the Guardian Council.
Timeline
According to the official dates announced in August 2016 by the Ministry of Interior:
Announced
Potential
Declined
Opinion polls
Information and Public Opinion Solutions LLC (iPOS), based in Virginia, asked a random sample of 735 Iranian adults aged 18 and older an open-ended question about their preference for the next president. Among all respondents, 60% were either undecided or expressed that "it is too soon for them to make a decision". The poll was conducted on 14–15 February 2015, via telephone interviews on landlines and cellular phones representing every province of Iran. The firm states with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3.6 percentage points. Among those who replied a name, the results were as follows:
Information and Public Opinion Solutions LLC (iPOS), based in Virginia, asked a random sample of 10,77 Iranian adults aged 18 and older about the next presidential election. The poll was conducted on 11–24 March 2016 (excluding March 20) via telephone interviews on landlines and cellular phones. The firm states with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. The results also indicates that respondents with university education prefer Rouhani by a wide margin and Ahmadinejad has a slight advantage in rural areas. Data analysis does demonstrate a statistically meaningful relationship between respondents’ party affiliation and their presidential vote, those self-identify as principlist are most likely to vote for Ahmainejad, while reformists and moderates remain loyal to Rouhani. Among those who claim no affiliation, Ahmadinejad would beat Rouhani.