Former moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has been disqualified as a candidate in the election scheduled for March to renew the Assembly of Experts responsible for appointing the Supreme Leader, his website announced Wednesday.
The 75-year-old cleric was President of the Islamic Republic from 2013 to 2021 and wanted to remain a member of the Assembly of Experts, to which he has been elected since 1999.
“The legal experts of the Guardian Council did not approve the qualification,” said the official website of former President Hassan Rouhani, without giving the reasons for this decision.
Hassan Rouhani said he had “took a difficult and steep path” when he announced in November his candidacy for this general election, which will take place on March 1, at the same time as the parliamentary elections.
The ex-president retains some political influence and criticizes the government dominated by conservatives and the Revolutionary Guards (Iranian regime's ideological army), especially after the protest movement that rocked the country following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
The Assembly of Experts, a collegium of 88 clerics elected for eight-year terms, is responsible for appointing, overseeing and possibly firing the Supreme Leader, Iran's highest authority.
The current supreme leader is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in office since 1989 and 84 years old.
The chairman of the assembly of experts is Ahmad Jannati, a 96-year-old ultra-conservative cleric who is not running for re-election. The Vice President is the current President of Iran, Ebrahim Raïssi, candidate for a new mandate.