Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on voters to support the only moderate candidate running for the country’s upcoming presidential elections.
Masoud Pezeshkian is able to remove the shadow of sanctions, Rowhani said in a video message on Wednesday. He described Pezeshkian as loyal and honest.
Rouhani served as president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and is considered to be on the moderate side of the conservative wing of Iranian politics.
Another former president, Muhammad Khatamihas also supported moderates.
About 61 million voters are eligible to elect a new president on Friday following the death of Ebrahim Raisi. The Guardian Council, an Islamic supervisory body, has authorized only six candidates for the elections. The council accepted the 69-year-old Pezeshkian as the only moderate candidate.
Pezeshkian criticized Iran’s harsh headscarf policy during the election campaign, while at the same time expressing his loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He also praised the attack on Israel with drones and missiles as an expression of the pride of the Iranian nation.
In addition to Pezeshkian, observers see hardliner Saeed Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator, and incumbent parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf as front-runners in the elections.
The West has imposed sanctions on Iran for violations of the nuclear deal, among other things. Many people in Iran are disillusioned by political repression, an economic crisis and failed reform efforts in recent decades.
In the fall of 2022, the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini sparked nationwide protests against the strict Islamic rule system. Voter turnout in this year’s parliamentary elections reached a record low of around 40%.
