https://raddingtonreport.com/rouhanis-reelection-solves-nothing/

Rouhani’s Reelection Solves Nothing

MaryamRajavi Iran FreeIran PMOI MEK,

E 21, 2017

Usually, the hope is that after an election a country can move forward, the new leader’s agenda bolstered by a popular mandate. That is not the case with Iran. Hassan Rouhani’s second term as president was far from a win for Iran’s economy, Iran’s international standing, and certainly not for Iran’s people.

In the words of the only opposition posing an existential threat to the regime, the strong-arm tactics demonstrated by the regime during the election process further divided a regime already gravely weakened by an internal power struggle. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, foresees Rouhani’s second term as serving only to aggravate that power struggle, bringing about a crisis at the leadership level of the ruling theocracy.

In Rajavi’s view, given the current circumstances at home and abroad, it is crucial for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to consolidate if he is to maintain his regime’s balance and weather out the near-daily crises that Iran faces. Khameni’s failure to manipulate the election so as to make usher Ebrahimi Raisi, his chosen candidate, into the presidential palace was a major defeat which does not bode well for his regime’s longevity.

Many believe Raisi’s “coronation” was a non-starter because his candidacy trained a spotlight on the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. Raisi sat on the “Death Commission” that administrated the executions. That horrific national wound never healed — instead, it erupted into public outrage, and regime insiders’ fear of the mounting demand for justice caused many clerics, even powerful figures within Khamenei’s faction, to distance themselves from Raisi.