Presidential Elections in Iran Mahmoud Pargoo , Shahram Akbarzadeh Frontmatter More Information

Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-83450-6 — Presidential Elections in Iran Mahmoud Pargoo , Shahram Akbarzadeh Frontmatter More Information

Presidential Elections in Iran

The dominant narrative of Iranian society and politics heralds the reformist movement as the epitome of Iran’s transition to secularity, while conservative political forces are positioned as advocates of Islamisation and a bulwark against secularisation. Examining all the presidential elections since the revolution, Mahmoud Pargoo and Shahram Akbarzadeh argue that in contrast, political and cultural imagination and expectations in Iran have actually secularised regardless of the reformist/ conservative divide. Exploring the evolution of campaign discourses from the 1980s elections which brought Abolhassan Banisadr, Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Ali Khamenei to power, to the more recent campaigns of Mohamad Khatami, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani, this book suggests that current debates in Iranian domestic politics are not between secularists and their opponents, but rather, between different kinds of secular forces.

mahmoud pargoo is a research fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute of Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and a former visiting lecturer at the University of Sydney. He received his PhD in Social and Political Thought from the Institute for Social Justice at the Australian Catholic University in 2019. shahram akbarzadeh is Convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum at the Alfred Deakin Institute of Deakin University, where he researches Middle East politics with a special focus on Iran. He recently completed a project on the role of Islam in Iranian foreign policy-making as a future fellow with the Australian Research Council. His publications include the Routledge Handbook on Political Islam (2021).

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-83450-6 — Presidential Elections in Iran Mahmoud Pargoo , Shahram Akbarzadeh Frontmatter More Information

Presidential Elections in Iran

Islamic Idealism since the Revolution

mahmoud pargoo Deakin University, Victoria shahram akbarzadeh Deakin University, Victoria

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www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108834506 DOI: 10.1017/9781108993432 © Mahmoud Pargoo and Shahram Akbarzadeh 2021 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2021 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Pargoo, Mahmoud, author. | Akbarzadeh, Shahram, author. Title: Presidential elections in Iran : Islamic idealism since the revolution / Mahmoud Pargoo, Shahram Akbarzadeh. Description: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identiﬁers: LCCN 2021009396 (print) | LCCN 2021009397 (ebook) | ISBN 9781108834506 (hardback) | ISBN 9781108993432 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Presidents – Iran – Election. | Elections – Iran. | Presidential candidates – Iran. | Islam and politics – Iran. | Iran – Politics and government – 1979– 1997. | Iran – Politics and government – 1997– | BISAC: POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Middle Eastern | POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Middle Eastern Classiﬁcation: LCC JQ1789.A5 P37 2021 (print) | LCC JQ1789.A5 (ebook) | DDC 324.955/054–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009396 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009397 ISBN 978-1-108-83450-6 Hardback ISBN 978-1-108-99513-9 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Contents

List of Figures and Tables page vii List of Abbreviations viii

Introduction 1 Two Pictures 1 The ‘Secular’ 6 Why Elections? 6 Electoral Politics in Iran 9 Chapter Outline 14 1 Theoretical Framework 17 Deﬁning Secularisation 17 Revolutionary Religiosity 23 Elections: From Anomalies to Pillars of Legitimacy 32 Conclusion 40 2 The Age of the ‘Imam’ 41 Introduction 41 First Presidential Election, 1980: Abolhassan Banisadr 44 Second Presidential Election, 1981: Mohammad-Ali Rajai 51 Third Presidential Election, 1981: Ali Khamenei 57 Fourth Presidential Election, 1985: Ali Khamenei 62 Fifth Presidential Election, 1989: Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani 66 Conclusion 71 3 The Era of Reconstruction and Reform 73 Introduction 73 Iran after Khomeini 75 Sixth Presidential Election, 1993: Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani 79 Seventh Presidential Election, 1997: Mohammad Khatami 86 Eighth Presidential Election, 2001: Mohammad Khatami 100 Conclusion 104

vi Contents

4 Ahmadinejad and Secularisation: Rupture or Continuity? 106 Introduction 106 Ninth Presidential Election, 2005: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 109 Tenth Presidential Election, 2009: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 126 Conclusion 133 5 Consolidation of Secularity 134 Introduction 134 Eleventh Presidential Election, 2013: Hassan Rouhani 136 Twelfth Presidential Election, 2017: Hassan Rouhani 147 Conclusion 158 Conclusion 160 What Are the Implications for the Future? 163

Appendix: Presidential Elections in a Nutshell 168 Bibliography 173 Index 182

Figures and Tables

Figure 2.1 Khamenei’s campaign image page 61

Table 5.1 Comparison of people’s expectations from the next president with Rouhani’s priorities in his speeches 137

Appendix Table 1 Presidential elections in a nutshell 168

vii

Abbreviations

AEOI Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran EA electoral authoritarianism ECP Executives of Construction Party IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency IMF International Monetary Fund IRGC Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps IRIB Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting IRP Islamic Republican Party JCPOA Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action MEK Mojahedin-e Khalq MPO Management and Planning Organisation OIPFG Organisation of Iranian People’s Fedai Guerrillas PBO Planning and Budget Organisation PLO Palestine Liberation Organisation UNSC United Nations Security Council

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