The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  • Rouhani appoints two women vice presidents

    Rouhani appoints two women vice presidents

    Re-elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday appointed two women as vice-presidents and one woman as a presidential assistant in the newly formed cabinet.

    According to the appointment letters signed by the Iranian president, Laaya Joneidi replaced Majid Ansari as vice president for legal affairs.

    Ms Masoumeh Ebtekar, was also appointed as vice president for women and family affairs, previously held by Shahindokht Molaverdi, who the president appointed the assistant on citizenship rights.

    Rouhani was sworn in the presidential office on Aug. 5 after being re-elected for the second term in May.

    On Tuesday, the president presented an all-male list of 17 ministers to the Iranian parliament for approval, a move which was widely criticized by pro-Rouhani reformist groups in the country.

    The Iranian cabinet has 12 vice presidents, with one of them occupying the position of the first vice president,

    who chairs government meetings in the absence of the president.

    In post-revolutionary Iran, the only female holding a ministerial office was Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, who acted

    as the health and medical education minister during the second presidential term of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 to 2013.

  • Ex-Iranian leader Ahmadinejad to participate in presidential poll

    Ex-Iranian leader Ahmadinejad to participate in presidential poll

    Ex-Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, submitted his name on Wednesday for registration as a candidate in Iran’s presidential election in May.

    The move by the former president was seen as a challenge to the authority of Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ordered him not to run for the election.

    Registration for the May 19 election started on Monday and will last five days, after which entrants will be screened for their political and Islamic qualifications by a vetting body, the Guardian Council.

    At least 126 prospective candidates have submitted their names for the election.

    There are six women and seven clerics among the 126 registered people, with ages ranging from 18 to 79.

    Registration will remain open until Saturday, and any Iranian national can apply.

    The Guardian Council will vet the applicants and  announce a final list of candidates on April 27.

    The council normally does not approve dissidents or women for the formal candidate list.

    President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, is eligible to run for another term.

    NAN

     

  • Iran holds key presidential elections

    Millions of voters across Iran are casting their ballots in the country’s presidential elections.

    Although all six candidates are seen as conservatives, one of them, cleric Hassan Rouhani, has been reaching out to the reformists in recent days.

    The BBC says the election will decide a successor to outgoing leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    His eight years in power have been characterised by economic turmoil and Western sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.

    Polls across Iran opened at 08:00 local time (03:30 GMT) and are due to close at 18:00 (13:30 GMT). Some 50 million people are eligible to cast their ballots.

    The past week brought a surprising change to what otherwise had looked like being a predictable election, the BBC reports.

    Mr. Rouhani has been attracting increasing attention, speaking publicly about the need to re-engage with the West.

    He has also promised to free political prisoners and called for greater reform of the media.

    The surge of support for him came after Mohammad Reza Aref, the only reformist candidate in the race, announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing his candidature on the advice of pro-reform ex-President Mohammad Khatami.

    Mr. Rouhani now has the endorsement of two ex-presidents, Mr. Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was disqualified from the race by the powerful Guardian Council.

     

  • Leaders gather for Chavez funeral

    Leaders gather for Chavez funeral

    Leaders from Latin America and beyond are gathering in the Venezuelan capital Caracas for the funeral of President Hugo Chavez.

    After the funeral, Mr. Chavez’s body will be taken to a military museum to lie in state for another seven days, BBC reports.

    More than two million mourners have already filed past his body at a military academy.

    Mr. Chavez’s body is to be embalmed and placed on permanent display, Vice-President Nicolas Maduro said.

    Later on Friday, Mr. Maduro is due to be sworn in as acting president. As such, he must call elections within 30 days.

    Hugo Chavez, who led Venezuela for 14 years, died on Tuesday aged 58 after a long battle with cancer.

    More than 30 heads of state are expected to attend Friday’s funeral including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Cuban President Raul Castro and Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

    President Ahmadinejad has praised Mr. Chavez as a “martyr” and a “wise and revolutionary leader.”

    United States Congressman Gregory Meeks and former Congressman William Delahunt will represent the country. Mr. Chavez was a fierce critic of Washington.

    Mr. Maduro said that Mr. Chavez’s body would be embalmed “like Lenin and Mao Zedong”, and put on display for at least another seven days.

    The body will be moved to the Caracas military museum where in 1992 Mr. Chavez – as an army officer – was captured after leading a failed coup.