The election process started today at Iran.

Iranians are voting to elect a new president, following the death of Ebrahim Raishi during the fatal crash of his helicopter.

Voters are asked to choose four candidates from a tightly controlled group loyal to the supreme leader as popular discontent mounts.

These presidential elections, originally scheduled for 2025, were organized within weeks to replace President Ibrahim Raisi, who was killed on May 19 in a helicopter crash.

They are being held in a sensitive context for the Islamic Republic, which must simultaneously manage internal tensions and geopolitical risks, from the war in Gaza to the nuclear issue, just five months before the presidential election in the United States, its sworn enemy.

Although the election campaign started without passion, this year’s election is more contentious than the previous one in 2021, thanks to the presence of the reformer Massoud Pezeskianwho has established himself as one of the three favourites.

His two main opponents are conservative parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Saeed Jalili, the ultra-conservative former negotiator on Iran’s nuclear program.

This competition could lead to a second round, something that has not happened since the establishment of the Islamic Republic 45 years ago except in one presidential election, in 2005.

To have a chance of winning the election, Masoud Pezeskian must hope for a strong turnout, unlike the 2021 presidential elections, which were marked by a record 51% abstention, as no reformist candidates were allowed to run.

Yesterday, Tuesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iranians to go to the polls en masse for a “high turnout”.

“There’s no question of me voting” because “whoever is elected, it won’t change anything for the people,” said Neda, a female engineer interviewed by AFP in Tazris, north of Tehran.

Zaleh, a 60-year-old housewife, instead said she was ready to “vote this year”, which is a “duty” at a time when “there are so many issues” to be resolved, “such as unemployment or poverty”.

For Ali Baez, an expert on Iran at the non-profit and non-governmental organization International Crisis Group, the future president must “face the challenge of the widening rift between the state and society.” So far, none of the candidates “has presented a concrete plan to solve the problems,” he estimates.

The reformist Pezeskian, a 69-year-old widowed family man, assured that it was possible “to get better” for some of the problems facing 85 million Iranians.

But for some voters, this doctor-turned-MP has no government experience, having only served as health minister about 20 years ago.

By contrast, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf is, at 62, a veteran of politics after a career in the Revolutionary Guards, the Islamic Republic’s powerful ideological army.

“I will vote for Ghalibaf because he is both an experienced administrator and a commander of the Guards,” which is good for “the security” of the country, explained Alireza Valandhani, a 35-year-old business consultant interviewed by AFP.

For his part, 58-year-old Saeed Jalili, who lost a leg in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, attracts the Islamic Republic’s most ardent supporters, advocating Tehran’s unyielding strictness with the West.

On the other hand, Massoud Pezeskian favors a warming of relations with the United States and Europe to lift the sanctions that are hitting the economy hard. He received the support of former foreign minister Javad Zarif, the architect of the 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.

The reformer also wants to settle the persistent issue of the mandatory nature of the headscarf for women, one of the causes of the widespread protest movement that shook the country in late 2022 after the death of Makhsa Amini, who was arrested for violating the dress code .

“For 40 years, we’ve been trying to control the hijab, but all we’ve done is make it worse,” laments Pezeskian.

Most of the other candidates have taken a cautious stance on the issue, saying they are rather opposed to the development of the morality police.

One of the certainties of the election is that the next president will be a civilian and not a Shiite cleric, like the two previous ones, Hassan Rouhani and Ibrahim Raishi.

He will therefore not be considered a potential successor to the 85-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei, who has been in charge of Iran for 35 years.