Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won Iran’s presidential election yesterday, the Interior Ministry said, scoring a surprising landslide victory over conservative hardliners without the need for a second round run-off.
Long live reform, long live Rohani
The outcome will not soon transform Iran’s long tense relations with the West, resolve an international crisis over its pursuit of nuclear power or lessen its support of Syria’s president in the civil war there – matters of national security that remain the domain of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But the president runs the economy and wields important influence in decision-making. Rohani’s resounding election mandate could provide latitude for a diplomatic thaw with the West and more social freedoms at home after eight years of belligerence and repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was legally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.
Celebratory crowds assembled near Rohani’s headquarters in downtown Tehran a few hours before his victory was confirmed.
“Long live reform, long live Rohani,” chanted the throngs, according to witnesses at the scene. “Ahmadi, bye bye,” they added in reference to Ahmadinejad, another witness there said.
Others flashed the victory sign and chanted slogans in favour of Mirhossein Mousavi, who reformist supporters believe was robbed of the 2009 election by what they say was vote rigging to return Ahmadinejad to office.
“Mousavi, Mousavi, I got back your vote” and “Mousavi, Mousavi, congratulations on your victory,” the crowds shouted.
“Many people are holding Rohani posters,” said one witness in Tehran. “Some are hugging and crying. We are all so happy here. We can’t believe there is finally a change.”
Another eyewitness named Mina told Reuters tearfully by phone: “I haven’t been this happy in four years. I feel that we finally managed to achieve a part of what we have been fighting for since the past elections. They finally respected our vote. This is a victory for reforms and all of us as reformists.”
Rohani will take up the presidency, the highest elected office in Iran’s hybrid clerical-republican system, in August.
Security forces crushed protests following the 2009 election – several people were killed, hundreds were detained. Mousavi and his fellow reformist candidate are still being held under house arrest. Authorities say the election was free and fair.
Iranian authorities and the candidates themselves, including Rohani, discouraged large street rallies this time round to forestall any possible flare-up of violent instability in the sprawling OPEC member state of 75 million people.
Though an establishment figure, Rohani is a former chief nuclear negotiator known for his nuanced, conciliatory approach. He has pledged to promote a policy of “constructive interaction with the world”, but no surrender to Western demands for a nuclear suspension, and enact a domestic “civil rights charter”.
Rohani could act as a bridge-builder between hardliners around Khamenei who reject any accommodation with the West and reformers marginalised for the past four years, who argue that the Islamic Republic needs to be more pragmatic in its relations with the world and modernise at home in order to survive.
His wide margin of victory revealed a widespread reservoir of reform sentiment with many voters, undaunted by restrictions on candidate choice and campaign rallies, seizing the chance to rebuke the unelected power elite over Iran’s economic miseries, international isolation and crackdowns on secular lifestyles.