With less than three months until Iran’s May 19 presidential elections, it is still not clear which candidates will be running. The Principlists have yet to reach a consensus on a single candidate, while there are rumors that the Guardian Council may disqualify incumbent President Hassan Rouhani's candidacy for re-election.

Until recently, speculation about Rouhani’s potential disqualification circulated only in in political circles, but the possibility is now discussed openly by media outlets and officials alike. The suggestion was perhaps first articulated in public by the late ultra-conservative cleric Jafar Shojooni, a prominent member of the hard-line Combatant Clergy Association, in May 2016. In an interview with Arman Daily, Shojooni urged efforts to ensure that the Rouhani administration won’t stay in office beyond its current term.

After media reports on Rouhani’s potential disqualification gradually increased, government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht dismissed such speculation Jan. 3. Without going into detail, he said that it is "not necessary to occupy people's minds” with such speculation.

Yet the speculation was reignited the next day following remarks by Guardian Council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei. In an interview with Mashregh News, Kadkhodaei said, “There is no guarantee that a president will be approved for a second term." However, Guardian Council member Nejatollah Ebrahimian told local news outlet Tabnak Jan. 14 that the council had not yet reviewed any candidates for the presidential elections and that it was too early to discuss the matter. Although Kadkhodaei did not use any names and only addressed the matter from a legal standpoint, his remarks nonetheless set off a new wave of talk about Rouhani's possible disqualification.