Were Told to Withdraw or Disqualification Would be Announced

After the Guardians Council disqualified Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashai from running in the presidential race, Mashai announced that he would protest the ruling, while Rafsanjani has till now not responded. Speaking exclusively to Rooz, Fatemeh Hashemi, Rafsanjani’s daughter and activist, said that her father knew of the disqualification on Tuesday morning (prior to the public announcement) and added, “Yesterday morning Mr. Hassan Rowhani and Mr. Larijani sent messages yesterday morning to Mr. Rafsanjani to withdraw his candidacy. They said that it was better for him to withdraw his candidacy rather than be rejected. My father said that he would not withdraw under any circumstances. He said that people trusted him and that he was there for them. He added that if they wanted to disqualify him, let them do it, but he would not step aside and withdraw.”

She pointed out that until the time of the interview with Rooz, her father had not been officially told of the disqualification but that they had heard the news on the television networks. She added that because of the pressures that were exerted for his disqualification, Mr. Rafsanjani predicted that he would be disqualified. “They had sent a message that he should withdraw so that his disqualification would not be publicly announced.”

Mr. Rafsanjani is undisputedly a founder of the Islamic regime who had been a close associate of ayatollah Khomeini, a member of the powerful Islamic Republican Party, the care taker of the ministry of the interior, the head of the Majlis, temporary Friday prayer leader for Tehran, deputy supreme commander of the armed forces, deputy of the assembly of experts on the constitution, president, head of the supreme cultural revolution council, head of the supreme national security council and head of the state expediency council, a position that he currently holds.

Till now, even the reformist camp in Iran whose leaders threw their full support for Rafsanjani’s presidential bid has not responded to the DC’s decision. Faezeh Hashemi told Rooz that the disqualification was in fact a good event for the family because of the pressure that had been exerted on them, particularly in the last ten days when her father officially registered as a presidential candidate. “For ten days they bombarded us with lies, slander and insults. We are only unhappy because people’s hopes have been dashed. People thought there was a new channel opened and so had real hopes.”

In response to Rooz’s question of whether Mr. Rafsanjani intended to protest the ruling, Faezeh said she doubted that because “He has done his duty and had entered the field to save the country and for people. They used his age as an excuse to disqualify him, even though they have not yet officially announced this to us.”

Mohammad Reza Tabesh, a refomist Majlis representative and Ali Motahari, a principlist Majlis member who is also the head of a principlist faction supporting Rafsanjani both had said prior to the GC announcement that would not protest the body’s ruling.

Even though there are no legal age barriers for presidential candidates, the spokesperson of the GC, Kadkhodai, had said earlier that the council would not approve someone who could not work for more than a few hours a day. The secretary of the GC had also said last Friday that a president should not be riding a Mercedes Benz, a car in which Mr. Rafsanjani was photographed to have gone to the ministry of interior’s presidential candidate registration office about two weeks ago.

Some observers have said that the supreme leader may intervene in the GC’s disqualification ruling of Rafsanjani and over-rule its decision, something that has happened in the past.

Rafsanjani issues a statement after the GC announcement yesterday which said that “differences should be tolerated for the sake of the integrity of the regime,” adding, “Our bad wishers are not of the type that deserve a response from us.”

The eight candidates that have been approved by the GC are all close associates of ayatollah Khamenei, except for Mohammad-Reza Aref (former president Mohammad Khatami’s first deputy) and Mohammad Gharazi (a former minister of oil).

The other disqualified candidates have not responded to their disqualifications, but Ali-Reza Zakani had said earlier that he would not have a problem with GC’s rejection of his credentials and Massoud Pezeshkian, another rejected candidate had also said that he would accept the decision of the GC.

Voting for the next president in the Islamic republic is scheduled to take place on June 14, 2013.