Six candidates will fight in Iran’s presidential election on June 28. The country’s Guardian Council did not nominate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former radical president of Iran, as a candidate.
Ahmadinejad announced his registration as a candidate on June 2. But analysts said at the time, the Guardian Council was unlikely to allow him to run.
Even in 2017 and 2021 presidential elections, he did not get a chance to participate even though he applied for candidacy. This time too he had to accept the same fate.
Ahmadinejad, a former member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was first elected president in 2005. He left the post in 2013 after completing his term.
Ahmadinejad questioned Khamenei’s monopoly on all important matters of Iran. Since then, his relationship with Khamenei has been strained.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed him after running for a second term in 2009. At that time, the mass uprising against Ahmadinejad started. The uprising was suppressed under the leadership of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. During this bloody crackdown, many people were killed and thousands of protesters were arrested.
In 2016, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned him that his participation in the election was “against the country’s interests”. Then in 2017, the Guardian Council did not allow him to participate in the elections.
In 2018, Ahmadinejad directly criticized Khamenei, a rarity in Iran. He sent a letter to him urging him to hold ‘impartial elections’.
