Ahmadinejad’s favourite is barred from Iran ballot

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei: Struck off. Picture: Getty

He called it an act of “oppression” and plans to appeal to the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

His comments yesterday came a day after the country’s powerful Guardian Council struck Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei from the candidate list.

The decision is unlikely to have been made without the ayatollah’s blessing, suggesting Mr Ahmadinejad’s appeal may be futile. Only eight candidates, most of them backed by clerical hardliners, were approved.

The ruling dealt a serious blow to Mr Ahmadinejad’s hopes of having his protégé succeed him. He cannot run in the 14 June ballot since he has already been elected twice.

“I believe the right of an oppressed man won’t be trampled at this level in a country where there is Velayat-e-Faqih,” Mr Ahmadinejad said, referring the Islamic system in which a top cleric is the final authority on all matters of state.

Mr Ahmadinejad called Mr Mashaei a “pious, rightful and competent man.” He said he would pursue the appeal “through the exalted leader [Mr Khamenei] until the last moment and hope the problem will be resolved” .

Mr Ahmadinejad has strongly supported his chosen successor. But Mr Mashaei is disliked by hard-liners because of his alleged role in the bitter feud between Mr Ahmadinejad and the ruling clerics. They have denounced him as part of a “deviant current” that seeks to undermine the Islamic system – which made his admission to the list improbable.

The Guardian Council also barred former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a centrist and reformist.

Mr Rafsanjani is a founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution that brought the clerics to power. He was the closest confident of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 revolution.

His rejection is a blow to pro-reform groups and boosts the chances of a candidate loyal to the supreme leader winning the election.

But removing the main challengers to the hard-liners dims hopes for high turnout, which Iranian leaders are believed to want to show that the republic is still robust.

Several prominent figures have appealed to Mr Khamenei to reverse the council’s decision.

The Iranian media failed to provide any reason for disqualifying Mr Rafsanjani, 78, but his opponents have claimed he is too old to run the country.

Others have cited his support for opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi who claimed to be the winner of the disputed 2009 election as another major reason for disqualifying Mr Rafsanjani.

A government crackdown in 2009 put an end to street protests, but Mr Rafsanjani remained critical over the way the crisis was handled.

Among the eight approved for the June ballot are Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, prominent parliamentarian Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati and Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf – all loyal to Supreme Leader Khamenei.

Former chief of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezaei and a little known former minister have also been approved.