Iran's June 14 presidential election steps up a gear today as the list of candidates bidding to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is finalised, with at least two well-known figures already targeted for disqualification.
The two, moderate former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and close Ahmadinejad ally Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, have come in for heavy criticism from ultra-conservatives.
Ahmadinejad himself is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term. This year's poll comes four years after his disputed re-election for a second term sparked months of violent street protests.
Rafsanjani, who will be 79 in August, polarised Iran's complex political spectrum when he announced he was considering standing again.
He has been isolated by ultra-conservatives since the massive protests of 2009 sparked a heavy-handed regime crackdown and the arrest of hundreds of journalists, activists and reformist supporters.
At the time, Rafsanjani called for the release of those rounded up during the demonstrations.
"If someone who wants to deal with the country's macro issues can only work a few hours per day, then it is natural that he will not be qualified," Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, spokesman of the Guardians Council which is to submit the approved list of candidates to the interior ministry on Tuesday, was reported as saying in the media on Monday.
Rafsanjani's two consecutive presidential terms between 1989 and 1997 were marked by reconstruction after the eight-year Iran-Iraq war and a relative openness to the West.
According to a Western diplomatic source, Rafsanjani is the main "proxy" candidate for the reformists.
He played an important role in the election of the reformist Mohammad Khatami, who succeeded him to serve as president from 1997 to 2005.
Khatami has repeatedly said he favours Rafsanjani's candidacy which should garner the support of moderate leaders and reformists.
A Western diplomat told AFP that Rafsanjani could also carve away votes from Mashaie as people prefer "their votes to be useful and not be considered just a vote," given Mashaie's slimmer chance of winning.
Mashaie has been targeted by hardliners for emphasising Persian civilisation rather than focusing on Islamic values.
In 2009, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei overturned Mashaie's appointment as first vice president, sparking a rift between Ahmadinejad and conservatives loyal to Khamenei.
Mashaie cannot boast any economic success, since Ahmadinejad's second term has been marred by international sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.
