Ebrahim Raisi to be the president of Iran

  • Ebrahim Raisi has been declared the winner of Iran's 13th presidential elections.
  • Iran’s president oversees the civilian arm of the country’s government. 
  • The president sets domestic policy.

THE CONTROVERSIAL ELECTIONS

  • The reformists, a powerful constituency, have pushed for gradual reforms by rallying behind leaders like Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani, the conservatives always pushed back.
  • There were allegations that the June 18 election was rigged in favour of Mr. Raisi even before the first ballot was cast.
  • The Guardian Council, which vets potential candidates, had rejected almost all major reformists, leaving him the only prominent figure on the ballot. 
  • This led to opposition activists calling for an election boycott, which seems to have had an impact on the voting — the turnout was 48.8%, an all­-time low.
  • A significant number of people did not cast their votes this time because they believe that the elections are rigged and do not trust the election watchdog called the Guardian Council (a panel of 12 members including six clerics and six jurists appointed by the Supreme Leader ) that disqualified some of the candidates favoured by the public.
  • Women candidates were disqualified even though they are not officially barred from contesting elections.

EBRAHIM RAISI

  • Raisi ran for elections against current president Hassan Rouhani in 2017, but lost to Mr. Rouhani.
  • Mr. Raisi was appointed the Chief Justice in 2019, which kept him in the top echelons of power till the presidential elections 
  • The appointment had sparked concerns because of his involvement in the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 after the Iran-Iraq war.
  • Amnesty International has identified Raisi as a member of the “death commission” that carried out “enforced disappearance and extrajudicial executions of several thousand political dissidents in Evin and Gohardasht prisons near Tehran between late July and early September 1988. 


THE SUPREME LEADER  

  • At the heart of Iran’s complex power-sharing government created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution is the supreme leader. 
  • The supreme leader also serves as the country’s commander-in-chief of its military and the powerful Revolutionary Guard. 
  • A paramilitary force that also has vast economic holdings across Iran. 
  • An 88-member elected clerical panel called the Assembly of Experts appoints the supreme leader and can remove one as well, though that’s never happened. 
  • Iran’s current supreme leader is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.



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