What is at stake in the presidential election in Iran?
NICOSIA: Iran organizes presidential election on Friday, with ultraconservatives Ibrahim Raisi who heads the judiciary most likely to win among the seven candidates.Here is a summary of the main issues:Iranian authorities tend to turn national elections into a referendum on the Islamic republic.Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged voters to turn out en masse as calls to boycott the elections with the hashtag #NototheIslamicrepublic surfaced on social media.To abstain would play the game of the enemies of Iran, the enemies of Islam and the enemies of religious democracy, Khamenei said.But this year, the abstention rate could exceed 57% of the legislative elections of February 2020.A low turnout would reflect widespread disappointment among Iranians who believe the outgoing president Hassan Rouhani s economic policies have been disastrous.Rouhani himself warned that low turnout could undermine the legitimacy of the Islamic republic.A year after the conclusion of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, the economy has started to grow amid high hopes of an influx of foreign investment.But the former American president Donald trump three years later, he unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal and imposed new sanctions on Iran.The recession has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.the International Monetary Fund said Irans GDP had started to stabilize in 2020, but the purchasing power of its people had been hit hard by the spike in inflation and the collapse of its currency.All seven presidential candidates agree the priority is to restore the economy and get the punitive sanctions imposed by Trump lifted.They support the ongoing talks in Vienna that could see the United States join the tattered 2015 deal and lift the sanctions.The american president Joe biden has indicated his willingness to join the deal once he is sure Iran will honor its commitments.US negotiators are indirectly participating in EU-chaired talks involving Iran and other partners  Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.All of Irans former presidents  with the exception of the first who was impeached and the second who was assassinated  were elected for two consecutive four-year terms, the maximum provided by the constitution.Many analysts believe that the question of who will succeed Supreme Leader Khamenei will be on the table while the next president is in office.Khamenei was president when he was chosen to succeed the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, after his death 32 years ago.Many Iranian media see poll leader Raisi as a possible successor to Khamenei, who turns 82 in July.But the prospect of (Raisi) succeeding Khamenei  is very uncertain, according to the American consultancy firm Eurasia Group.It also makes the system vulnerable, as there is no one to blame when public expectations are not met, he said.Iranian political life is not kind to presidents and Raisi has no experience in the service of work with real public responsibility.If the economic problems worsen, there is an increased risk that Raisi will look less like a future leader than like damaged goods, he added.