Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Polarizing Ex-President of Iran, Is Barred From Running Again<br />By THOMAS ERDBRINKAPRIL 20, 2017<br />TEHRAN — A council that vets Iran’s political candidates disqualified former two-term president Mahmoud<br />Ahmadinejad on Thursday — along with hundreds of others — from the presidential election next month.<br />Besides Mr. Rouhani, the approved candidates included Ebrahim Raisi, a prominent conservative cleric who is regarded as Mr. Rouhani’s main rival; Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf,<br />the conservative mayor of Tehran; Eshaq Jahangiri, a reformist first vice president; Mostafa Mirsalim, a hard-line conservative; and Mostafa Hashemitaba, a moderate.<br />According to the state television announcement, a total of six candidates will<br />be competing — all men — and include the incumbent, President Hassan Rouhani.<br />Political analysts in Iran are expecting the race will come down to a competition between Mr. Rouhani<br />and Mr. Raisi, a former judicial official accused of having been involved in the killing of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.<br />While Mr. Ahmadinejad’s disqualification was not unexpected, the timing of the announcement — just around midnight,<br />two days before what had been the scheduled unveiling of the final list of candidates — was unusual.<br />No official reason was given for the disqualifications in the May 19 election, which were<br />announced on state television Thursday night by an election official, Ali Asghar Ahmadi.<br />In office from 2005 to 2013, Mr. Ahmadinejad is not the first former president to be barred from seeking the office again.
