An Iranian hard-line former member of parliament has revealed that Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was barred from running in the 2009 presidential election, whose aftermath was mired by unrest.
In an interview with Tarikh Online on Oct. 30, Hamid Rasaee spoke about Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s effective barring of ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running in the upcoming May 2017 presidential election. Rasaee said, “From what I heard, Mr. Ghalibaf had been advised the same in 2009. Mr. [Ayatollah Akbar] Hashemi Rafsanjani had been advised in 2005, too. … Mr. Hashemi didn’t listen and ran [in the 2005 election], but Mr. Ghalibaf didn’t nominate himself and didn’t run [in the 2009 election].”
