On May 11, in the last moments before the registration deadline for candidacy, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani registered to run in the elections. The news immediately became the headline of popular Iranian websites. Rumors spread inside and outside of Iran that the reason for Rafsanjani’s late registration was the last-minute registration of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is endorsed by Rafsanjani’s bitter enemy, [Iranian President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But news leaked from Rafsanjani’s office exposing something different.

Gholamali Rajaei, member of Rafsanjani’s office, and his aide reported his observations of the last day of registration as follows: On Saturday morning [May 11], Rafsanjani was frequently asked whether he would run in the elections, to which he declared, “I have to consult with the supreme leader. If he remains silent I will run, but if he disagrees, I will definitely not run.” Rajaei said that at 5 p.m., an hour before registration ended, Rafsanjani proclaimed that he was “still waiting for the leader.” Rajaei added that “he [Rafsanjani] was told that if he doesn’t run it is good that he issues a statement and tells the people the reason. … He accepted and told us to prepare the text. We went to the adjacent room and started preparing the text.”

Rajaei described the last moments: “It was around 5:30 p.m., and the text was about to be finalized when Mr. Alikhani (Rafsanjani’s parliamentary adviser) came to our door and yelled, ‘Mr. Rajaei, he left for registration; don’t stay behind!’ I couldn’t believe it. I grasped in a call with an influential member of the leader’s office that there had been some exchanges and he had not felt any disagreement from the leader’s side.” Rafsanjani’s daughter Fatemeh revealed that even though they were almost certain that her father would not register, suddenly after a telephone conversation at 5:30 p.m. he said, “Bismillah [In the name of God], let’s go.”

With Rafsanjani’s registration for the elections, experts inside Iran now see the main candidates as Mashaei, the candidate of the 2+1 coalition, Rafsanjani and Saeed Jalili. Heated discussions are also underway about the approval or disapproval of Mashaei’s candidacy. Some believe that a fear of Ahmadinejad’s reaction to Mashaei’s disapproval — especially before the elections in a country that must remain calm — would result in the Guardian Council’s approval of his candidacy. But opponents of this view have a stronger argument. They point to Ayatollah Khamenei’s order in 2009.