Saturday, May 14, 2005
1010 Iranian to run for president!
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran candidates set poll record: "A record 1,010 people have registered to run in Iran's presidential election next month, the interior ministry says.
Registration closed on Saturday and aspiring candidates will now wait while their applications are vetted by the hardline conservative Guardian Council.
The list of those registered includes 89 women, but the Guardian Council has already said they will not be eligible.
Among those tipped to make it through to stand on 17 June is former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Mr Rafsanjani, who was president twice from 1989 to 1997, is seen as a pragmatic conservative, open to better ties with the West but more socially conservative than the reformists, the BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says."
Registration closed on Saturday and aspiring candidates will now wait while their applications are vetted by the hardline conservative Guardian Council.
The list of those registered includes 89 women, but the Guardian Council has already said they will not be eligible.
Among those tipped to make it through to stand on 17 June is former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Mr Rafsanjani, who was president twice from 1989 to 1997, is seen as a pragmatic conservative, open to better ties with the West but more socially conservative than the reformists, the BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says."
