As Iran’s best-known moderate Hassan Rouhani was being blocked from the powerful body with responsibility to appoint the country’s supreme leader, his hardline successor as president, Ebrahim Raisi, was handed a clear run at the same authority.
The publication late last month of the list of eligible candidates for the elected Assembly of Experts rammed home to Iran’s pro-reform forces that their influence was badly waning, as hardliners consolidated their grip on power. The blocking of a raft of reformist candidates for parliamentary elections and the predicted low turnout for both votes on March 1 has only added to their disillusionment.
The elections come at a critical juncture for Iran, where the 84-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has held sway as the political and religious authority since 1989. His death over the next eight years would hand the assembly the job of picking a successor, determining the country’s future for decades to come.