Police Chief Brigadier General (head of the national police) Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf tossed his hat into the ring Sunday. His previous billet, prior to leading the powerful internal security forces was head of the air wing of the Revolutionary Guards. President Khatami bumped him up to fight Saddam's PMOI, so it is ironic that the Americans are running the PMOI as the local color face on round 3. Another pragmatic capable of running the defense.
Payvand has a nice write up on Rafsanjani, who on Monday held a press opportunity and announced he was "completely ready" for a comeback in the June 17 election. The link is here.
IRNA fielded a poll of 7,100 people in 11 cities. The most popular candidate was former president Rafsanjani (1989 to 1997), with 13.9 percent.
The next most popular candidate was former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi, with 4.8 percent.
In a three-way tie for third are: former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, with 4.2 percent, former education minister Mostafa Moin with 4.1 percent, and National Security Council member and media mogule Ali Larijani with 3.9 percent.
Overall, the conservatives aren't doing that well in the poll, which either means that the regime in Washington's rhetoric about the necessity of "freedom" in Iran refers to some other Iran, or a consensus has formed that running the defense against the American assault isn't a job for jumped up social conservatives, which is pretty much what the Imam decided when he let the Shah's air force out of pokey to kill Iraqi armor and artillery and end the movement phase of the Iraqi invasion.
This Wiki is recently developd a surprisingly good section on the election: http://www.answers.com/topic/iranian-presidential-election-2005
See also: Return of the ... One True King (XIV).
When this line is removed, it means I think I'm done with this installment of Rot ... OTK.
Posted by EBW at March 17, 2005 08:05 AM | TrackBack