TEHRAN — Iran’s seven presidential candidates on Tuesday put the current economic problems squarely on the shoulders of the outgoing administration of President Hassan Rouhani.
After a first debate, the aspirants on a televised debate focused their attention on Rouhani and rebuked his administration’s “hope” campaign that surrounded its now-tattered 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The candidates held Abdolnasser Hemmati responsible for the problems in his capacity as the Central Bank chief.
For his part, Hemmati sought to distance himself from Rouhani, describing himself as being fired from the Central Bank in May after he declared his candidacy. “I am not Rouhani’s representative,” he insisted.
The looming June 18 election will see voters pick a candidate to replace Rouhani. The election comes amid tensions with the West as negotiations are bogged down amid Washington’s refusal to return to compliance to the nuclear deal that then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from in 2018.
The debate has boosted the chances of voter turnout, which is believed to have been affected by the Rouhani administration’s mishandling of the economy.
Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, believed to be the race’s front-runner, brought up the deficit of trust by the public.
“People’s living conditions have been damaged badly. People’s businesses have been damaged gravely. People’s trust in the government maybe is at the lowest level in years and has been damaged severely,” he said. “We strongly need the social asset.”
Mohsen Rezaei said “you cannot eat hope” in a swipe at the president. He put corruption concerns squarely on Rouhani’s government as well.
“Mafia kings are like vacuum cleaners and vacuuming up all the country’s resources,” Rezaei said.
Even Mohsen Mehralizadeh, the reformist candidate for the election, criticized Rouhani’s Health Ministry for being “negligent” in its response to the coronavirus.
Press TV said its study of the most prominent polls after Iran’s first presidential debate showed credible patterns of voter support for each of the seven candidates as well as the estimated turnout in the upcoming election.
The network said voter turnout increased after the first presidential debate to 47.1% — marking an increase of 2.5 percentage points, and that the figure will continue to increase as the election day draws closer.
According to Press TV’s findings, Raisi enjoys the highest support — 55.6% — among voters. Rezaei ranks at a distant second with 5.5%.
The two reformist candidates in the election, Hemmati and Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh, come next 2.1% and 0.7%, respectively.
Voter support for Sa’eed Jalili stands for 2% for Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi at 1.9% and for Alireza Zakani at 0.7%.
Press TV said shortly before the second presidential debate, 23.2% of the voters were still undecided.
Iran is holding its 13th presidential election on June 18. The first presidential debate was held on Saturday.
Over 59.3 million Iranians are eligible to vote in the election, according to the Iranian Interior Ministry.