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Okay, my thread is a bit late to the party since we already know Rohani is being elected, since he won the first turn of the elections with quite a comfortable margin.
About 57% against 38% for his main opponent Raisi.
And that's a pretty big deal because apparently Khamenei's health isn't very good so maybe this term's president will take part into deciding who the new Supreme Leader will be.

My knowledge of Iran isn't so hot. I haven't known their leader since that ahmadinejad guy or however you spell his name. I think that was Bush era though. Also didn't know they had very free elections.

I thought was other way round. The supreme leader decided the political roles?

Id expect some kind of Islamic council decides on religious leader, maybe one of the senior imans below him?

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
Also didn't know they had very free elections.

They do have free elections, in the sense that the religious "council of guardians" approves a certain number of people that you can then freely vote on. As I recall something like 150+ people wanted to run for president and the council approved six for people to decide on. Though another good thing, I guess, is that you're not punished for trying to get in. You're just ignored.

Not that it's really that important since unlike in the US the president doesn't really have a lot of power. You remember that Ahmadinejad fellow for his boasts and idiotic statements, but the only reason he could keep shoveling bull was the religious council thought it was useful to have a loud-mouthed scapegoat for the people to be dissatisfied with.

Also worth noting that this year, Ahmadinejad candidature was censored by the council of guardians!

To sum up the Iranian system, they have the “secular” part of the government with the president, the majli (parliament), etc. And then, above, you have the guardian council and the supreme leader that are somehow a bit like the supreme court, except that instead of just upholding the constitution, well, they uphold “islamic law” (that leaves quite a big of wiggle room) and “the revolution” (same)…
Those people usually don't take part in mundane politics, they just control those that do, and throw them out if need be.

Spetulhu wrote:

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
Also didn't know they had very free elections.

They do have free elections, in the sense that the religious "council of guardians" approves a certain number of people that you can then freely vote on. As I recall something like 150+ people wanted to run for president and the council approved six for people to decide on. Though another good thing, I guess, is that you're not punished for trying to get in. You're just ignored.

Not that it's really that important since unlike in the US the president doesn't really have a lot of power. You remember that Ahmadinejad fellow for his boasts and idiotic statements, but the only reason he could keep shoveling bull was the religious council thought it was useful to have a loud-mouthed scapegoat for the people to be dissatisfied with.

So it's not freedom really. It's just people saying you can vote on these few people who all think like us and are probably morons and puppets with no power.

Sounds worse than the U.S. system but our system sucks too. I mean congress prevents each other from doing anything and reverses all the things the other side approved when they get in power. This essentially leads to congress arguing and doing absolutely nothing. The president does a bunch of things that also gets reversed by the other party's president.

I honestly wouldn't be shocked that when democrats have everything again everything will get reversed....AGAIN. Not only that but republicans will prevent them from doing anything just like democrats are doing now to the republicans. Yep our current government sucks balls.

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On the subjects of puppets this whole election year also felt like the 'puppet year'. Hillary's a puppet to a lot of businesses and Trump is most likely a puppet to Russia.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
So it's not freedom really. It's just people saying you can vote on these few people who all think like us and are probably morons and puppets with no power.

That's not true. While all the candidates are still obviously going to be in favor of the IRI, they still are different and would enact different policies. It's more like “You get to choose between this and that, but not that third option you would prefer”.
And while the Supreme Leader can basically impose anything he wants, he usually doesn't. The more he does, the more he will get the population angry at him, and it has always been about managing the pressure.