Bill Samii

Also by Bill Samii

• June 23, 2005

  Iran: Ethnicity And Regional Interests Play Out In Vote

  Mustafa Moin (file photo) Close attention to ethnic interests during the current presidential campaign paid off for at least one candidate during the 17 June first-round voting. Mustafa Moin, despite ending up in fifth place overall, topped the list in a province predominantly inhabited by a religious minority. Another candidate, Mohsen Mehralizadeh, won almost all the provinces where members of his ethnic minority predominate. But an examination of provincial voting patterns reveals that these factors ultimately did not play a decisive role in the outcome.

• June 21, 2005

  Iran: A New Generation And The Drift To The Right

  Mahmud Ahmadinejad (file photo) The 24 June second round of the Iranian presidential election pits two individuals with very different backgrounds against one another -- Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani versus Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

• June 19, 2005

  Iran: As Winners Head For Runoff, Losers Complain Of Fraud

  Voting in Iran on 17 June 19 June 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Two of the losing candidates in Iran's ninth presidential election on 17 June have complained of military interference in the election, with one calling on the country's supreme leader to intervene and another warning of a fascistic trend in the country's politics.

• June 16, 2005

  Iran: The Reformist And The Ideologue

  Reformist Mustafa Moin Former Minister of Science, Research, and Technology Mustafa Moin's ranking in recent polls in the run-up to the 17 June Iranian presidential election is improving, although he usually trails behind Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and former national police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. Moin was initially disqualified by the Guardians Council and reinstated only after the supreme leader issued a decree to this effect, so observers have been surprised by his relatively strong showing to date. Part of his success is almost certainly due to the role played in his campaign by reformist ideologue Said Hajjarian, the man behind reformist domination of the sixth parliament (2000-04).

• June 15, 2005

  Iran: Abundance Of Candidates Worries Hard-Liners

  Conservatives in Iran are worried that they have too many horses in the 17 June presidential race. Of the eight candidates, four are firmly in the hard-line camp and are referred to as "principlists" (osulgarayan) -- Tehran Mayor Mahmud Ahmadinejad, former state broadcasting chief Ali Larijani, former police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, and Expediency Council Secretary Mohsen Rezai. Another candidate, Expediency Council Chairman and two-term president (1989-97) Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, can be considered a center-right candidate, but he is insufficiently conservative for most hard-line activists.

• June 13, 2005

  Iran: Leading Presidential Candidate Gets Important Endorsement

  Ayatollah Hashemi-Rafsanjani (file photo) Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who served as president for two terms from 1989-97, has emerged as the most popular candidate for the 17 June presidential election in several polls, and late last week he received the endorsement of the country's oldest political organization for clerics.

• June 13, 2005

  Iran: Bombings May Be Connected With Minorities, Election

  On the morning of 12 June, four explosions occurred within 20 minutes of each other in Ahvaz, the capital of Iran's southwestern Khuzestan Province. This is only the most recent violent incident in a region inhabited by ethnic Arabs who are angry about discrimination (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 18 and 25 April 2005).

• June 09, 2005

  Iran: New Worries Arise Over Military Involvement In Election

  Iranian Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani said on 7 June that there was no doubt that there was military interference in the election process and this was "dangerous," IRNA reported.

• June 08, 2005

  Iran: Reformist Campaigning Could Yield An Upset In Presidential Race

  Presidential candidate Mohsen Mehralizadeh The two reformist Iranian presidential candidates -- Mustafa Moin and Mohsen Mehralizadeh -- who were initially disqualified by the Guardians Council and then reinstated on the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are campaigning in earnest.

• June 07, 2005

  Iran: Clerics Face A Presidential Dilemma

  Iran's clerics have two weeks to choose a favorite The Iranian constitution requires that the president be a "religious-political individual" (rejal-i mazhabi-siasi), but this does not mean the president must be a cleric. Indeed, only two clerics won approval as candidates in the presidential race. Nevertheless, the clerical community's endorsement is important in a theocratic state. Clerical leaders are professing neutrality, but their effort to ensure a conservative consensus is indicative of their biases.

• June 03, 2005

  Iran: Students Wonder Whether They Should Vote

  Presidential Candidate Mustafa Moin is considered a reformer As candidates for Iran's 17 June presidential election begin campaigning, some student activists are advocating an election boycott. This is not an irrelevant matter -- some two-thirds of Iran's population is under the age of 30 (46 million out of a total population of 69 million) and the voting age is 15. Plus, eight years ago young Iranians helped a relatively liberal dark horse win a landslide victory.

• May 24, 2005

  Iran: Pre-Campaign Campaigning Under Way

  Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Guardians Council The big issue in Iranian politics this week is the vetting of candidates for the 17 June presidential election by the Guardians Council -- an unelected body of six clerics and six lawyers. The council announced on 22 May that only six out of the 1,014 prospective candidates were eligible to compete in the election. That is less than 1 percent -- an impressively small figure.

• May 23, 2005

  Six Men To Compete For Iranian Presidency

  Expediency Council Chairman Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989-97, is considered a front-runner among those reportedly approved 23 May 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Iran's Guardians Council, which vets candidates for elected office in the country, announced yesterday that it has approved six men from a list of more than 1,000 applicants to compete in the mid-June presidential election, Radio Farda and Iranian state television reported.

• May 07, 2005

  Will Conservatives Dominate Iran's Election?

  Potential candidate Hashemi-Rafsanjani has been criticized by conservatives and reformists The men and women who wish to compete in the Iranian presidential election will begin registering on 10 May. After five days, the 12 members of the Guardians Council will begin to examine the applicants' qualifications. This is part of the Guardians Council's constitutional responsibility to supervise elections.

• May 06, 2005

  World War II -- 60 Years After: The Anglo-Soviet Invasion Of Iran And Washington-Tehran Relations

  On the eve of World War II, many Iranians contrasted the United States with Great Britain and the Soviet Union, seeing it as the one international actor that could help Iran gain control of its future. Moreover, the American role in forcing Soviet invaders to leave Iranian Azerbaijan after the war reinforced this positive image. Using information from U.S. State Department documents that were published in the "Foreign Relations of the United States" series, books and articles by participants, and several scholarly works, this article describes events 60 years ago that seemed to portend a different path for U.S.-Iran relations.

• May 05, 2005

  Prospective Presidential Candidates To Register In Iran

  Who is likely to replace President Khatami? Registration of prospective candidates for Iran's next presidential election is scheduled to begin on 10 May and continue for five days. The Interior Ministry will forward this information to the Guardians Council, which will screen the applications until 24 May. Individuals whose candidacies are accepted can campaign from 27 May until 24 hours before election day on 17 June.

• April 23, 2005

  Iran: Handling Of Ahvaz Unrest Could End With Televised Confessions

  If the authorities follow a pattern established after other incidents of unrest, the people they arrested for involvement in the Ahvaz unrest could soon confess on television that they were involved with foreign elements.

• April 22, 2005

  Iran: Legislature Tough On Reformist Press, Lenient On State Media

  Two recent incidents indicate the politicized nature of Iranian media affairs and reveal the impact of conservative domination of the legislature and the resulting absence of oversight. In the first case a reporter has lost her access to the parliamentary beat, and in the second case state television is serving as a platform for a conservative presidential candidate's campaign speeches. Conservative control of the executive branch, which is a possibility after the June presidential election, could make things worse.

• April 22, 2005

  Iran: Tehran Opposes U.S. Pro-Democracy Initiatives

  Ayatollah Khamenei says U.S. statements on Iranian democracy are revealing (file photo) U.S. interest in Iranian domestic politics has increased recently. The State Department is looking for democratic organizations or activists to support, and Congress is considering legislation relating to Iran. Iranian opposition groups, meanwhile, are soliciting U.S. support. Tehran does not see these developments in a positive light and claims that the United States has always opposed Iranians' democratic efforts.

• April 18, 2005

  Iran: Ethnic Unrest Signals Greater Problems

  Washington, 18 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Rioting ethnic Arabs in the city of Ahvaz in southwestern Iran's Khuzestan Province clashed with security forces on 15 April.

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