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According to the latest official results announced by Iran’s Interior Ministry with 23,014,873 ballots counted so far, the moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani is leading with 11,754,013 votes which is 51.07% of the counted votes followed by Tehran’s Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf with 3,494,938 which is 15.19% of the counted votes.

If a candidate wins over 50 percent of the vote in the first round, he will replace the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Otherwise a run-off will be held in a week’s time to determine a final winner in the race.

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Saeed Jalili: “Everybody must respect whoever the people elect…I ask all the people and supporters of candidates to help create the political epic.”

Mohsen Rezaei: “I have come here to say people are our main concern, that’s why I came to cast my vote. I will thank the Iranian nation for whatever decision they make today… My way is the continuation of the way of my martyred brothers.”

Hassan Rowhani: if the people create a great epic today on july 14, july 15 will be the victory day for the Iranian nation and not a particular candidate… the owner of this country is the nation. The country is theirs and their right… We are witnessing a higher turnout in this election.

Mohammad Gharazi: Today is the day of Resurrection for the revolution and the election. The enemy has sheathed its sword… what organizes the election are the votes of the people. I will accept whatever the Interior Ministry, the Guardian Council, and the nation say. I have told the guardian council in a letter that I will not have representatives because I fully trust their staff.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf:”Certainly only one of the candidates will be elected and people’s choice will be the best their votes will be respected… I want to make fundamental and basic changes in the area of progress and justice.”

Ali Akbar Velayati: “What is most important is the people’s turnout and electing the best candidate… people should rush to the polls… Whoever people vote for will be respected by all of us.”

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Many of the country’s top officials have already cast their votes with the Leader of the Islamic Republic being the first. He urged the nation to go to the polls early. In response to remarks by a American National Security Council official, the leader stated that the Iranian nation would not be influenced by such remarks and that they would act according to their own beliefs and needs.

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“In this meeting we are to clarify the procedures of the election [for the candidates] and to hear comments of the candidates,” said Kadkhodaei in a presser just before the meeting.

While the representative of Gholam Ali Hadad Adel was absent at today’s meeting. A few hours after the meeting Gholam Ali Hadad Adel issued a statement announcing his quit from the election race in favor of the “Prinipalist Candidates”. He didn’t mention name of any of the candidates.

The spokesman of the Guardian Council also denied the reports on the possibility of reconsidering qualifications of the reformist candidate Hasan Rowhani.

 Iranian Fars News Agency reported earlier today that the Guardian Council will reconsider Rowhani’s qualifications in an urgent meeting today.

“We may give notices to the candidates about some aspects of their campaigning but we not review the qualifications,” Kadkhodaei said.

At the beginning of the meeting, the represantatives of the candidates delivered a short statement about explaining their candidates’ stance on procedures of the election.

“I appreciate the Guardian Council,” said Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, the representative of Rowhani, “It can avoid any misunderstanding if we the representatives of the candidates be present during sealing of ballot boxes,” he said.

The campaing manager of another reformist candidate, Mohammad Reza Aref also said they will be committed to the law in every step of the election.

“Our slogan is commitment to the law so we accept the role of the Guardian Council in vetting the qualifications and counting of the ballots,” he said.

Shahin Mohammad-Sadeghi a representative of Ali Akbar Velayati also said his candidate is committed to the law and will abide any decision by the Guardian Council.

Ali Bagheri the representative of Saeed Jalili also underlined the “important role of the Guardian Council in the last elections” and said: “This initiative by the Guardian Council to have closely interaction with the candidates shows the council has a serious approach [to have a fair election].”

Talking to the journalists, Bagheri denied the possibility of Jalili quitting on behalf of any other Principalist candidates.

“Saeed Jalili will not quit from the race. His popularity is boosting after the TV debates,” he said.

The representatives of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mohammad Gharazi and Mohsen Rezaei endorsed the role of the Guardian Council and wished a fair election with a high turn-out.

Iranians will cast their votes on behalf of one the 8 presidential candidates on June 14. 

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An analysis based on the results of three surveys conducted by three reliable Iranian polling centers shows that none of Iran’s presidential candidates would gain enough votes to win outright on the first ballot.

More than 50 million Iranians will head to the polls on June 14th to determine Iran’s next president. Iran’s Guardian Council has approved eight candidates to compete in the poll. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote a runoff is scheduled to be held a week later.

According to the Analysis seen by Iran’sView, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, mayor of Tehran and a Principalist candidate, would win almost 27% of the votes and would be one of two competitors in any run off and the second competitor would be either Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator or Ali Akbar Velayati a top advisor to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei.

11.7% of voters surveyed decided to vote in favor of Saeed Jalili and 11.3% for Ali Akbar Velayati, both Principalist candidates.

A similar survey conducted in the 2009 presidential elections gave accurate results.

This poll was carried out in late April on more than 400,000 people in 31 provinces throughout Iran.

More than 51% of eligible voters have decided to participate in the presidential elections. One out of five voters surveyed said they chose not to participate in the elections.

More than 56% of voters said they will vote for one of the four Principalist candidates.

Beside, Ghalibaf, Jalili and Velayati,  Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, another Principalist candidate would gain 6.7%, Mohsen Rezaei and  Mohammad Gharazi two independent candidates would have respectively 6.7% and 0.7% of the ballots.

Of Iran’s two candidates in the Reformists camp 5.6% of voters surveyed said they would vote for Mohammad Reza Aref and 3.1% would vote for Hassan Rowhani.

 Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former two-term president of Iran was the most popular candidate associated with the reformists but he was disqualified by Iran’s Guardian Council due to his old age and therefore his inability to take the responsibility of being president.

The results of the surveys have not been publicized so far, but Iran’sView received an analysis paper based on the three reliable surveys.

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The 78 year old politician, who entered with much hype and went away silently, caused a unity among Pincipalists at first, but his withdrawal created division.

They don’t think of Mohammad Reza Aref, Mohsen Rezaei, Hasan Rowhani and Mohammad Gharazi as serious opponents, so they don’t feel the need for unity.

Four Pincipalist candidates are Ali Akbar Velayati, Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf and Haddad Adel who are three members of the Progressive Coalition or the Coalition of 2+1 who seem to be open to Saeed Jalili joining them.

The members of the Progressive Coalition were supposed to reach a consensus on one candidate, based on polls and surveys. But even 20 days after the agreement, no one stood aside for the sake of the other two.

Ali Akbar Velayati

Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei on International affairs, recently said “the three members of the coalition will keep campaigning and at a point before the voting day on June 14, we will decide who is going to be the final candidate.

He also said the decision by the Combatant Clergy Association and the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom (two highly influential clergy institutions in Iran) is highly capable of choosing the final candidate.

“The exact time of announcing the chosen candidate is not clear and depends on the coalition’s decision. Debates and talks will be held and they will decide by popularity, legitimacy and efficiency,” Shahin Mohammad Sadeghi, MP and the head of Velayati’s presidential campaign told Iran’sView.

He reiterated that the polls and surveys are just as important as the decision by the two important clergy institutions.

“Jalili’s involvement in the Progressive coalition is also relying on the decision by the coalition members. But the whole Principalist party is trying to reach an accord based on the decision of aforementioned institutions and public popularity,” he said.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf

Yet Qalibaf is not a fan of this idea. Because even though recent polls put him above Velayati and Haddad Adel, he will not have a chance with the two clergy institutions.

Gholam Ali Haddad Adel

Haddad Adel, former Speaker of the Majlis, said on Wednesday, “We think of Jalili as a Pincipalist and in case he joins our Progressive coalition only one of us will stand for presidency.”

Like Velayati, he believes in the final decision by the two clergy institutions, but “We also consider polls and we have to wait for the TV debates to assess the real outcome.”

It is not clear whether the coalition of 2+1will turn into 4, but Jalili hasn’t responded to the invitation by the coalition.

Saeed Jalili is known for being the chief nuclear negotiator among the public and has more votes from the Pincipalist party and other tough defenders of nuclear rights.

Head of the Hadad Adel presidential campaign, Hossein Nejabat has a different view from Sadeghi.

“When Mr.Velayati said [all members of the coalition] will campaign separately until the end, he did not mean campaigning until the voting day, but it might be the 6th or 7th of June,” he said in an interview with Iran’sView.

“The polls are taken one week before the election and will decide the fate of the progressive coalition. In fact, the coalition thinks public opinion is not shaped yet. They are waiting for the TV campaigns to decide on the final candidate. It is definite that three of them will not seek a spot on the ballot,” Nejabat said.

Nejabat also thinks differently about the decision of the two clergy institutions.

“Those institutions will not meddle in the election or decide on the final candidate,” he said, but “It is very important for the coalition that senior clerics are not against the final candidate so they are trying to be on the same path as them.”

He also denies inviting Jalili and says Hadad Adel did not invite him directly.

“A group of students asked Dr. Adel if he will accept Jalili as a member of the coalition if he stands for candidacy. Adel answered, if Jalili attracts a significant amount of voters we will consider his participation.”

Saeed Jalili

Bagheri Lankarani and Alireza Zakani withdrawal has boosted Jalili’s votes and gained him popularity but it seems that Jalili is not that willing to join the “Progressive Coalition”.

He is characterized by his firm stance on foreign policy, avoiding huge campaign expenditures and distancing himself from secular parts of society. This has distinguished him from other coalition members, especially Qalibaf.

Qalibaf and Velayati to some extent are not cynical about figures like Hashemi but Jalili is.

Even though he is more like Adel, because of his differences with Qalibaf, it is less likely that he will join the progressive coalition and this division will work for the benefit of the reformists.

If Qalibaf is to be the final candidate, many of Velayati and Adel supporters will abandon Qalibaf. Becuase Adel and Velayati to seem to think closer to Jalili.

We have to see if the possibility of the victory of the two independent candidates (Mohsen Reza’ei and Mohammad Gharazi) or the two Reformist candidates (Aref and Rowhani) will convince the Pinricpalists to set their differences aside or the elections will become more volite.

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While some of prominent Iranian politicians couldn’t get qualification, the list of qualified candidates include an unknown name: Mohammad Gharazi.

Born in 1941, Gharazi has a master of Electronics Engineering from Tehran University.

He was a member of Mojahedin-E Khalgh (MEK) before the 1979 revolution and was a comrade of Imam Khomeini during his exile in France.

Although the MEK was an Iranian revolutionary organization that participated in the 1979 Revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi Shah, but it entered an armed conflict with the Islamic government since June 28, 1981 when bombs were detonated at the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party and Around 70 high-ranking officials were killed.

Mohmmad Gharazi apparently left the MEK before members of the organization left Iran for Iraq to fight against the regime along with Saddam Hoseing, then dictator of Iraq during 8 years of Iran-Iraq war.

Gharazi served as the minister of Oil in Mir Hossein Mousavi’s cabinet during 1981-85 and was the minister of Post, Telegraph and Telephone in Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s administration since 1985 to 1997.

Being a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and a Member of Parliament are other notable facts in Gharazi’s political record.

His approval for presidential candidacy was a big surprise as he was away from Iran’s political arena for years.

He announced his campaign motto as “Anti-Inflation Administration” when he registered for the presidential election. 

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