Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President-elect, has an unenviable task ahead

Tehran: Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi, 60, who got elected on June 19, 2021, becomes the first Iranian to be elected to the office of the President while under U.S. sanctions for his alleged involvement in Iran’s mass executions of political prisoners in the late 1980s.

Raisi, Iran’s hardline judiciary chief, will take responsibility of running the country on August 3, 2021. 

According to Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, almost 62% of the nearly 29 million voters had voted for Raisi in the Presidential election on June 18, 2021. His nearest rival, a former Revolutionary Guard Commander Mohsen Rezaei, finished second with 11.8% votes. The overall voters’ turnout was 48.8%, the lowest ever. 

Raisi, who the USA sees as an ultra conservative, won in a quadrangular contest after three of the seven  presidential candidates who were approved by Iran’s Guardian Council to contest the elections, had withdrawn from the contest on June 16, 2021.

Incidentally all these candidates had backed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s decision to engage in indirect talks with the USA in Vienna in recent months so as to ensure that Washington’s sanctions on Iranian economy were eased. A section of Western Media was critical of the Guardian Council and accused it of only allowing Khamenei’s loyalists to run in the elections, thus ignoring many other prominent public figures who too were presidential hopefuls. The USA claimed there was no “free and fair electoral process” in the country’s presidential election. A spokesperson for the US Department of State said Washington will nonetheless continue indirect talks with Tehran on rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal. In the meanwhile though, the USA has made an official announcement about lifting the sanctions on equipment needed to fight COVID-19.  

President-elect Raisi, who can serve a maximum of two four-year terms, is now also being seen in Western media as a possible contender to replace 82-year-old Khamenei, who remains Iran’s Supreme Leader since 1989.

Iran’s President Dr. Hassan Rouhani, who chaired the 234th meeting of the Cabinet’s Economic Coordination Board on Sunday, called on the Cabinet’s Economic Coordination Board to report the country’s economic situation to the president-elect, Raisi. Emphasising that the government’s priority has been to provide foreign currency for basic goods and medicine in order to increase public welfare and support the lower income classes, Dr. Rouhani said, “All the government’s efforts have been to resist the fully-fledged sanctions of Iran’s enemies and provide the necessary foreign currency to supply basic and essential goods and maintain and improve the country’s production”.

While congratulating Raisi on his election, Dr. Rouhani said, “Thank God, the President-elect is a person who is fully aware of the situation in the country due to his responsibilities in the judiciary and attending important meetings, and he knows the ups and downs of these days, especially the days of sanctions and coronavirus”.

Dr. Rouhani  wrote, “I have no doubt that taking advantage of all existing material and spiritual potentials and optimal organisation of facilities can help resolve the problems and facilitate realising people’s wishes and the lofty ideals of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic at domestic and foreign stages.” 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated Raisi on his election as President and in a tweet said that he looked forward to working with him “to further strengthen the warm ties between India and Iran”.