By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:Iran has announced that presidential elections will take place June 14, 2013.
The most important element in this announcement is that the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, cannot seek reelection. The constitution of Iran prevents any candidate from serving more than two terms and Ahmadinejad has had his two.
The last Iranian election was in 2009. The lead up to the election and the immediate aftermath caused tremendous upheaval. That period is now known as the Green Revolution. Tens of thousands of Iranians swarmed the streets and many more silently supported a change in regime and challenged the results of the election.
Most of all those candidates who opposed Ahmadinejad have since been arrested and placed under house arrest. Contrary to popular conceptions in the United States and in the West, almost all the opposing candidates were even more extreme than Ahmadinejad.
This upcoming election will pit supporters of Ahmadinejad against more radical factions. But even then, the only real voice, the only voice that counts is that of the Supreme Leader, the Grand Ayatollah Khamanei.
Whichever candidate the Grand Ayatollah taps will be the next president of Iran. It doesn't even pay to count the popular vote. That is how elections are conducted in Iran.
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