Ahmadinejad to appeal Iran poll-ban on ally

Iran’s president is to challenge a decision to disqualify his top aide from a vote to elect his successor, but former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has said he has no objections to his own ban.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the Guardian Council’s removal of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei from the final candidate list was an act of oppression and he would take the case to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader. “He has been a victim of injustice,” he said of his former chief of staff in comments posted on his website.
Ahmadinejad, who is prevented from running in the June 14 ballot owing to term limits, said that Mashaei would be beneficial for the country and he was hopeful that the matter would be resolved.
“In my opinion there will be no problem with the Leader and I will take up this issue until the last moment with him,” Ahmadinejad said, according to ISNA news agency.
There had been wide speculation that Mashaei would be excluded from the list but less for Rafsanjani, a two-term president and present head of the Expediency Council, a position appointed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader. However, Rafsanjani’s campaign manager Eshagh Jahangiri told ISNA news agency on Wednesday that the he would not object to his disqualification. “Mr Hashemi has always been among the pillars of the regime and will remain so, God willing,” Jahangiri said.
The exclusion of Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei from the presidential ballot has given establishment-friendly candidates a clear path to succeed Ahmadinejad, who has lost favour with the ruling clerics after years of power struggles. It pushes moderate and opposition voices further to the margins as Iran’s leadership faces critical challenges such as international sanctions and talks with world powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme.