Iranian Moderate Elected President in Rebuke to Conservatives
Abedin Taherkenareh/European Pressphoto Agency
Supporters of the newly elected president of Iran, Hassan Rowhani, took part in street festivities on Saturday after the announcement of his victory in Tehran. More Photos »
By THOMAS ERDBRINK
Published: June 15, 2013
TEHRAN — In a striking repudiation of the ultraconservatives who wield power in Iran, voters have overwhelmingly elected a mild-mannered cleric who campaigned on seeking greater personal freedoms and a more conciliatory approach to the world.
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THE LEDE
Latest Updates on Election Day in Iran
The Lede is following developments in Iran, where voters went to the polls on Friday in the first presidential election since the disputed contest in 2009.
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Seyed Ruhollah Kalantari/Fars News, via Reuters
Election officials counted votes on Saturday during the presidential elections in Qom, Iran. More Photos »
Iranian state television reported on Saturday that the cleric, Hassan Rowhani, 64, had more than 50 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff in the race to replace the departing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose tenure was defined largely by provocation with the West and a seriously hobbled economy at home.
The hard-line conservatives aligned with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, placed at the back of the pack of six candidates, indicating that Iranians were looking for their next president to change the tone, if not the direction of the nation, by choosing a cleric who served as the lead nuclear negotiator under an earlier reformist president, Mohammad Khatami.
During the Khatami era, Iran froze its nuclear program, eased social restrictions and promoted dialogue with the West. Friday’s election, which electrified a nation that had lost faith in its electoral process, also served the supreme leader’s goals: restoring at least a patina of legitimacy to the theocratic state, providing a safety valve for a public distressed by years of economic malaise and isolation, and returning a cleric to the presidency. Mr. Ahmadinejad was the first noncleric to hold the presidency, and he often clashed with the religious order and its traditionalist allies.
Mr. Rowhani has been a strong supporter of the disputed nuclear program. And while he is expected to tone down the tough language with the West, he also once boasted that during the period that Iran suspended uranium enrichment, it had made its greatest nuclear advances because the pressure was off.
In the Iranian system, the supreme leader is the ultimate religious and civic authority. He has final say on all matters, but still needs to build consensus within the narrow world of Iran’s political, security and business elite. The president has some control over the economy — now the public’s primary concern — and can set the tone of public debate on a variety of issues, including the nuclear program and restrictions on how young people socialize.
The results will pressure Ayatollah Khamenei to allow changes, even if they are opposed by hard-liners who control the levers of power.
The ayatollah himself had exhorted Iranians to exercise their right to vote, and analysts are predicting at least some change. “There will be moderation in domestic and foreign policy under Mr. Rowhani,” said Saeed Laylaz, an economist and columnist familiar with the reformists’ thinking.
“First we need to form a centrist and moderate government, reconcile domestic disputes, then he can make changes in our foreign policy,” said Mr. Laylaz, who, in a sign of confidence, agreed to be quoted by name.
Using a key as his campaign symbol, Mr. Rowhani focused on issues important to Iranian youth, including unemployment and international isolation.
“Let’s end extremism,” Mr. Rowhani said during a campaign speech. “We have no other option than moderation.”
He criticized the much-hated morality police officers who arrest women for not having proper head scarves and coats. He called for the lifting of restrictions on the Internet. He said that “in consensus with higher officials,” political prisoners would be freed.
They often seemed like empty promises to many voters, who pointed out that Mr. Rowhani did not enjoy the support of those in power.
But the backing of Mr. Khatami and another former president, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani — who was disqualified from running himself — lifted Mr. Rowhani’s campaign and helped win the votes of millions of dissatisfied Iranians.
His appeal to younger voters was crucial in a nation where there is an increasing divide between the millions of youths — two thirds of Iran’s 70 million people are under 35 — and the hard-liners in government who use the morality police, block the Internet and carry out other harsh measures to try to mold those born after the revolution in 1979.
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