Iran Elections

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-election-vote-idUSKCN0VZ0E7

Will Iran move closer to the president or the supreme leader? I guess we'll find out soon!

I love elections. They're so exciting.

admin: My 2 cents worth because the forum seems dead and this is an interesting issue ... I think that Rouhani's presidency is very reminiscent of that of Mohammed Khatami, its just that with Ahmadinejad coming between them its easy to think that Rouhani is radically different and forget all that happened before. Having said that though lets hope Rouhani's government doesn't fall apart like Khatami's did. I think that given election results and Rouhani's actions so far, Iran is on track for more liberal policies, although tensions/conflicts will continue to exist between the president and supreme leader. Khamenei will need to allow Rouhani quite a bit of freedom for reform, given Rouhani's popular support, if he wants to aviod protests like were seen in 2009 as part of the 'green movement' that in many ways really paved the way for Rouhani's current presidency.

The important thing to watch in Iran I think is the guardian council and what they will do moving forward, and how others will respond to them... if any institution in Iran needs reform, its them, particularly as they have been seemingly becoming more conservative in who they'd allow to run in elections

Stick: Totally agreed about the guardian council BTW. It's by nature a conservative institution but it's not really serving the best interests of Iran as a country any more.