RFERL's Bill Samii offers a primer on Iran's upcoming presidential elections, and backgrounder biographical sketches on some of the leading prospective candidates, including the highly controversial Hashemi Rafsanjani. The 70 year old conservative Ayatollah and former Iranian president and Khomeini confidant hasn't yet made clear if he definitely intends to run, and Iran's clerical leaders aren't sure they will permit him to in any case. Iranian diaspora press reported that Rafsanjani was the subject of May Day worker protests at a Tehran stadium earlier this week.

Posted by Laura at May 6, 2005 10:32 AM