Two Iranian women on Wednesday announced their candidacies for the presidency in elections on June 14.
The hopefuls are 45-year-old housewife Razieh Omidvar, a trained economist, and university professor Soraya Malekzadeh, also 45. Both told journalists in Tehran that their priority would be to combat astronomical inflation.
It is unclear, however, whether women are allowed to run at all in presidential polls as there are some ambiguities both in the constitution and election law.
According to the constitution and election law, the person eligible to register as a presidential candidate should be a "rejal" - an Arabic term for both distinguished men as well as VIPs.
There have been numerous discussions in recent years on whether the term "rejal" could also be associated with and adopted for women.
In the 34 years since the Islamic revolution no woman has ever seriously been considered for the presidential post, and hence those debates did not yield any concrete results.
Almost half of the eligible voters in the 2009 presidential election - more than 46 million - were women, and this will also be the case this years.
The deadline for candidates to register is Saturday.
Since registration opened Tuesday, more than 110 people signed up. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is prohibited by the constitution from seeking a third term.
Almost nine-tenths of those who have registered so far do not have a background in politics but say they want to rescue the country, according to media reports.
Of the candidates who have so far registered, only the cleric, Hassan Rowhani, is to be taken seriously. Rowhani is former chief negotiator for the country's nuclear programme and candidate of the reformist wing.
The candidates of the Interior Ministry's conservative wing are expected to be announced by Saturday, among them former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati. dpa fmb sgb ar Author: Farshid Motahari
"their priority would be to combat astronomical inflation."
ReplyDeleteIs that it?
They better come up with something better, or there wont' be any country to curb inflation in.
The FIRST priority is straightening out the International Matter between U.S-rael and Iran.
I think some attention to the fact their country is being unlawfully starved and sanctioned into oblivion should be a priority for them, no good tackling inflation when you may not have a country to call home if the Zionazis and USrael get their way.
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