Candidates Prepare for First Debate

The Khorasan newspaper headlines "Candidates Prepare for First Debate" and writes: "On Wednesday, although the first speech of the election candidates on state television was initiated by a radio program featuring Es'haq Jahangiri, the first vice president, other candidates did not have any provincial trips or special speeches, and only limited themselves to going to state television to record their programs and, of course, talking to reporters on the sidelines of these programs. This can be seen as a kind of calm before the debate and preparation for the first live debate of this election cycle." The newspaper notes that the first debate of the six candidates for the twelfth presidential election will be held on Friday at 4 PM, focusing on economic and social issues, stating: "The calm in the atmosphere of election comments on Wednesday indicates the candidates' concentration for the debate on Friday." The Etemad newspaper describes the first debate as a "battle of promises and actions" and writes: "Three hours of debate among the six candidates on Friday, 8 Ordibehesht, will clarify the initial situation of the people's votes to determine who holds the winning card in the 96 elections. Is there anyone who can captivate eyes and ears like in 92? This time, the presidential election debates have turned more than anything else into an electoral sideline, and the principlists, who suffered the biggest blow four years ago from this very place, have made every effort to portray Rouhani as defeated in the debates." Sadegh Zibakalam emphasized in a note in Etemad that "Hassan Rouhani must make fundamental changes in his election campaigning, debates, and speeches. He is in a situation that none of the other candidates face, which is that he has been the head of the executive branch for four years. His opponents will try to use this tool against him and show that the government has had no achievements for the country." The columnist points out that "Rouhani's rivals refer to unemployment and recession and try to position themselves against him through the economic window," stressing that "it is very important how Mr. Rouhani defends himself. If he simply denies the issues and says that unemployment is less than what his rivals claim, it will be detrimental to him and will play into the hands of his opponents." Zibakalam recommends that "Hassan Rouhani should acknowledge that there are problems in the economy, but fundamentally, what percentage of the country's economy is under the executive branch's control and what percentage is under institutions, foundations, and organizations that have nothing to do with the government? What connection does Astan Quds Razavi have with the government? Many of these do not even pay a single rial in taxes to the government. Therefore, Mr. Rouhani must explain the economic structure of the country to the people and put his rivals on the defensive." The Bahar newspaper, in a report titled "Predictable Debate," writes that Hassan Rouhani and Es'haq Jahangiri, as two candidates, "will defend the record and performance of the government and talk about future plans," while Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Ebrahim Raisi, as two other candidates, "will try to gain votes by showing the empty half of the glass to the people and stirring the emotions of the nation." However, it is unclear what the two remaining candidates aim to achieve in this competition. The newspaper also notes that in the debate on Friday, "what we will hear from the principlist candidates will include issues such as youth unemployment, inflation, neglect of the business environment, smuggling, and imports," and they "will try to exploit the usual forgetfulness among the people and portray the record left by the moderate government over the past three and a half years as unacceptable." The Shahrvand newspaper has also speculated about the "debate tactics of the candidates," stating that Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf will "use all their efforts to challenge the incumbent government," while "Hassan Rouhani and Es'haq Jahangiri will focus on defending the achievements of the eleventh government through a division of labor." The newspaper also writes that "Qalibaf, to compensate for his defeat four years ago in the debates where he lost with the two keywords 'colonel' and 'gas wrench,' has attacked Rouhani's government as much as possible in his speech after registering, and it is expected that he will maintain his fiery tone in the debates." Furthermore, "Qalibaf must also compete with Ebrahim Raisi, another principlist candidate." The Shahrvand newspaper emphasizes that Qalibaf "must convey the message to his supporters in the debates that he has the ability to compete with Hassan Rouhani and Es'haq Jahangiri, and to send such a message, he must show up in the debates with a combative spirit as much as possible." Farshid Ghazanfarpour, in a report for Shahrvand, writes that "Ebrahim Raisi has so far appeared beyond his supporters' expectations; for someone with no experience in executive positions, the smart strategy is to use recognized elements to introduce himself to the people. Raisi has done just that," and "in a short time, he changed three campaign managers, and at the time of writing this report, Ali Nikzad, the Minister of Roads and Urban Development in Ahmadinejad's government, is leading his campaign." However, "Nikzad and the Mehr Housing project are two intertwined names and unforgettable memories," and now "Raisi's promises regarding subsidies and the criticisms that the Mehr Housing project has faced could tie his hands in the debates." The Shahrvand newspaper also notes that "Raisi's judicial background is another issue that could be raised in the upcoming debates, and this very position divides the space between him and Hassan Rouhani." Regarding Hassan Rouhani's debate tactics and capabilities, the newspaper writes: "Even if he were not the president, he could stand in front of the camera as a debate specialist for other candidates," adding that he can be considered the greatest brand builder of the Islamic Revolution, as he chose the title 'Imam' for the founder of the Islamic Republic after the martyrdom of Mostafa Khomeini. In the 92 debates, he used this ability to defeat Qalibaf and then went on to his famous phrase 'the centrifuge wheel and the wheel of people's lives' to defeat Saeed Jalili." Shahrvand writes that now, "unlike in 92, Hassan Rouhani is no longer the opposition to the government; he is the government itself, and this position creates a complex and unpredictable situation in a society that is always critical." The newspaper notes that "Es'haq Jahangiri is not the one who, due to his calculating mind and precise information about the government's operations, can become the phenomenon of the 96 debates," and Mustafa Mir Salim has so far shown that "he is not present as the entertainment bell for the other candidates in the elections, and as much as he criticizes the government, he has no qualms about criticizing the two principlist candidates in the competition as well." However, in this context, "Mostafa Hashemi Tabar will likely have the most ambiguous role in the upcoming debates." Newspapers close to the principlist faction in their Thursday editions continue to focus on attacking Hassan Rouhani and the eleventh government instead of introducing programs and supporting candidates from this faction. Kayhan has accused the Iranian Statistics Center of "manipulating past statistics" and described it as "the latest measure of the government with no record." The newspaper writes: "Following the publication of a critical report regarding the inaccuracy of the claims made by government officials about creating 700,000 jobs annually during the eleventh government, the Statistics Center published a response in which it manipulated the employment statistics of the previous government to prove the government's claims." Kayhan simultaneously attacked the executive and supervisory bodies of the city and village council elections for approving the qualifications of figures such as Abdollah Momeni, Emad Bahavar, Shahbanu Amani, and Hamed Montazeri, labeling it as "the illegal approval of the qualifications of judicially convicted individuals and seditionists for the city council." The Vatan-e-Emruz newspaper has printed a photo of Es'haq Jahangiri on its front page with the headline "Stand Up," stating that he is "performing stand-up comedy to gain votes, with the difference that he performs stand-up but wants people to vote for someone else." The Javan newspaper, close to the Revolutionary Guards, criticized reformist newspapers for their criticism of the electoral promises of Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, writing that these newspapers "enthusiastically reflected Rouhani's words and promises of millions of jobs in 92, but now, in a clear double standard, they uniformly and chain-like attack the promises made by the rival candidates about the capacity to create 5 million jobs in the next four years." This newspaper has also expressed doubts about the economic promises of Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf but wrote: "Let’s assume that the promise of creating 5 million jobs over four years is disproportionate to the current situation of the country, and let’s assume that reformists are convinced that since they cannot change the situation, the situation cannot be changed. Shouldn't they at least be ashamed of themselves, as they were the ones who were so vocal about similar promises from Rouhani just four years ago?" The Javan newspaper has accused the media that criticize the electoral promises of Qalibaf and Raisi of "scandal and deceiving the people," writing that "in this shameless and duplicitous people-deceiving over the past four years, the chain newspapers are not alone, and foreign anti-revolutionary media have a tangible and verbatim alignment with them, and the fleeing opponents also beat the same drum." The Shargh newspaper, while publishing a report about the controversial presence of Saeed Mortazavi during Ebrahim Raisi's speech in Yazd, has approached the former Tehran prosecutor and asked, "Why was Saeed Mortazavi seen at Ebrahim Raisi's speech?" Mortazavi responded that "as a citizen, I went to the Hazireh Mosque in Yazd to listen to Ebrahim Raisi's speech, and if the other candidates go to Yazd, I might attend their speeches as well." Shargh reminded that "Mortazavi's cases in court are still open; from the complaints of the lawyers of the Palizdar case to Fatemeh Ajrlou, a former member of parliament; from the family of Rouh al-Amini to the victims of Kahrizak, and most importantly, the complaint of the Social Security Organization backed by the report of the investigative committee on the Social Security Organization."