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Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16984/iran-presidential-show
Iran's "Supreme Guide" Sets Conditions for Election Candidates
(Gatestone Institute) Amir Taheri - Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Khamenei has set strident new conditions for those who wish to stand for election in June. Female Iranians are excluded, as well as non-Muslim Iranians and non-Shiite Muslims. Among Shiite Muslims, you have to be a Twelver Shiite, which means that dozens of sects are excluded. You must also believe that Islam is incomplete without imams and that the rule of the "Supreme Guide" is the only legitimate form of government. The new conditions also stipulate the necessity of university-level degrees. A Majlis (parliament) report in 2018 claimed that there were thousands of fake PhDs in the Islamic Republic, including many in the high echelons of government. One fake university with an address on an island in the Caribbean has sold over 500 doctorates to Iranian officials for $25,000 apiece. Those with foreign-born or foreign-resident parents, offspring or any other close relatives are also barred. In 2018 the Majlis reported that over 1,500 senior officials had dual nationality, mostly U.S. or Canadian, or had children attending school in Western Europe or North America. Even if you fulfill all those conditions, the "Supreme Guide" may veto your candidacy and, as you believe in his infallibility, you will not be able to challenge his decision. The writer was executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979.