Iranians are called to the polls on Friday to elect a new president from six candidates, including a previously unknown reformer who hopes to shake up the pre-eminence of conservatives.
This presidential election, initially scheduled for 2025, was organized in a few weeks to replace President Ebrahim Raïssi, killed in a helicopter accident on May 19.
It takes place in a delicate context for the Islamic Republic, which must manage both internal tensions and geopolitical crises, from the war in Gaza to the nuclear issue, just five months before the presidential election in the United States, its sworn enemy. .
Having started without passion, the campaign was more contested than the previous one in 2021, thanks to the presence of reformer Massoud Pezeshkian who established himself as one of the three favorites.
His two main opponents are the conservative President of Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, and Saïd Jalili, the former ultraconservative nuclear negotiator.
This competition could lead to a second round, which has only been the case in one presidential election, in 2005, since the advent of the Islamic Republic 45 years ago.
“Unemployment” and “poverty”
To have a chance of winning, Massoud Pezeshkian must hope for a strong participation, unlike the 2021 presidential election, marked by a record abstention of 51% while no reformer or moderate candidate was authorized to compete.
On Tuesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iranians for “high participation” in the vote.
“There is no question of me voting” because “whoever is elected, it will not change anything for the people,” said Neda, a female engineer interviewed by AFP in Tajrish, in the north of Tehran.
Jaleh, a 60-year-old housewife, on the other hand declared herself ready to “vote this year”, a “duty” when “there are so many issues” to resolve “like unemployment or poverty”.
For Ali Vaez, Iran expert at the International Crisis Group, the future president will have to take up “the challenge of widening the gap between state and society”. So far, none of the candidates “has presented a concrete plan to resolve the problems,” he believes.
Reformer Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old widowed father, assured that it was possible to “improve” some of the problems facing the 85 million Iranians.
But, in the eyes of some voters, this doctor-turned-MP lacks government experience, having only been Minister of Health around twenty years ago.
Conversely, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf is, at 62, a veteran of politics after having made a career within the Revolutionary Guards, the powerful ideological army of the Islamic Republic.
“I will vote for Ghalibaf because he is both a wise manager and a commander of the Guardians”, which is good for the “security” of the country, explained Alireza Valadkhani, a 35-year-old consultant interviewed by AFP.
For his part, Saeed Jalili, 58, who lost a leg in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, attracts the Islamic Republic’s most ardent supporters, supporting Tehran’s unyielding stance against Western countries.
The veil in question
On the other hand, Massoud Pezeshkian pleads for a warming of relations with the United States and Europe in order to lift the sanctions which are severely affecting the economy. He received the support of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Javad Zarif, the architect of the nuclear agreement concluded with the great powers in 2015.
The reformer also calls for resolving the persistent issue of the compulsory wearing of the veil for women, one of the causes of the vast protest movement which shook the country at the end of 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini, arrested for non-compliance with the dress code .
“For 40 years we have sought to control the hijab, but we have only made the situation worse,” lamented Mr. Pezeshkian.
Most of the other candidates adopted a cautious attitude on this issue, declaring themselves rather opposed to the deployment of the moral police.
One of the certainties of the election is that the next president will be a civilian and not a Shiite cleric, like the two previous ones, Hassan Rouhani and Ebrahim Raïssi.
He cannot therefore be considered as a potential successor to Ayatollah Khamenei, aged 85 and at the head of Iran for 35 years.