Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called on all Iranians to vote in Friday's elections, “even if for reasons they don't want to support the Islamic ruling establishment”.
“They do want to support their country though. Everyone must turn out,” Khamenei said on Wednesday.
Until recently a high turnout seemed unlikely. Since 21 May, when the guardian council announced the eight approved presidential candidates – excluding two prominent figures, the former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close ally of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – the campaign had appeared to rouse little public interest.
According to a journalist in Tehran, that has changed in the capital. “You will not believe the election buzz in Tehran today. Everyone is talking about elections and who to vote for and everyone is advocating for [Hassan] Rouhani and trying to convince people to vote for him.”
The campaign of the relatively moderate Rouhani, who served as chief nuclear negotiator under the reformist former president Mohammad Khatami, received a boost on Tuesday when Mohammad Reza Aref, Khatami's senior vice-president, bowed out of the race. Later in the day Rouhani received explicit endorsements from both Khatami and Rafsanjani.
Of the popular mood swing that followed, the Tehran journalist said, “I never saw this coming. Everyone was so without hope and talking about not ever voting again, and this morning things have changed 180 degrees. It's like someone put something in the water last night and this morning people are just different.”
According to another source in Tehran, “The atmosphere just completely changed after Khatami and Hashemi put their support behind Rouhani. People are really excited. Wherever Rouhani speaks there's a frenzy. Today in Mashhad it was like four years ago with the appearance of Mousavi.”
Mir Hossein Mousavi, whose defeat by Ahmadinejad in the 2009 race is widely believed to have been rigged, attracted crowds to his campaign rallies far outnumbering those reported during the first two and a half weeks of this year's campaign.
The source continued: “Even those who were undecided or completely set against voting are saying they want to cast a ballot to make sure that anyone like Jalili doesn't win.” Saeed Jalili, Iran's current nuclear negotiator, is regarded as the preferred choice of the regime's ultra-conservative leadership.