TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Stunning Iran and disregarding the words of its supreme leader, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Wednesday to run in the country's May presidential election and upended a contest largely expected to be won by its moderate incumbent.
Hard-line ex-leader Ahmadinejad stuns Iran with election bid
By AMIR VAHDAT and JON GAMBRELLApril 12, 2017 GMT
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Stunning Iran and disregarding the words of its supreme leader, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Wednesday to run in the country’s May presidential election and upended a contest largely expected to be won by its moderate incumbent.
Though Ahmadinejad still might not be approved for the ballot by Iran’s clerically overseen government, merely the mention of the Holocaust-questioning populist might energize discontent hard-liners who want a Persian answer to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ahmadinejad’s candidacy also comes as Trump has threatened a reappraisal of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and as fissures still linger inside Iran after his contested 2009 re-election, which brought massive unrest.