Ahmadinejad. Going home?
Photo: AP
Report: Ahmadinejad may not run for president again
Following reports that Iranian leader's health is failing, local website quotes Ahmadinejad associates as saying he may not take part in 2009 presidential elections due to exhaustion
Will workload prevent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
from running for the president of Iran
again? A series of cancellations in the Iranian president's schedule have sparked a wave of rumors stating he may not take pare in the 2009 presidential elections due to health problems.
In recent months, rumors about the 52-year-old president's failing health have been leaked to Iranian media. According to the report, on Wednesday Ahmadinejad canceled his performance at an important convention of the "planning and statistics organization" at the last minute. His adviser said he was "ill."
This week, Iranian website Shihab News quoted sources "close to the president's office" as saying the cancellations were the result of workload and Ahmadinejad's tight schedule.
Head-to-Head
Former Iranian president, considered a moderate, says he will run for office under two conditions: People's consensus, expansion of presidential powers
Details about the president's busy timetable have been published in the past, with reports saying that he works many hours and hardly sleeps at night. Ahmadinejad has a habit of traveling to the country's difference provinces for public speeches and meetings with the Iranian people.
According to the report, in May the president called off one event after another for three consecutive weeks, failing to meet his schedule. Ahmadinejad's doctors, the associates said, recommended that he reduce his workload in order to decrease his chances of becoming ill.
The report said that "the great number of incidents in which he was ill have led to estimates among the political arena that Ahmadinejad may not be able to take part in the 2009 presidential elections."
As the president is expected to declare his bid for another term soon, the website called on Ahmadinejad's traditional camp "to clarify his health condition and make him remove his candidacy should the situation worsen. These ongoing illnesses may harm the management of the state's affairs, particularly due to the sensitive situation the country is in."
Ahmadinejad distressed
The Iranian presidential elections are expected to take place on June 12, 2009. So far, only one candidate has joined the race – 71-year-old Mehdi Karroubi of the reformist movement.
The Shihab News website is affiliated with Hassan Rowhani, one of Ahmadinejad's political rivals, who has criticized the president's policy in the past year on internal and nuclear issues.
Rowhani, who served as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator during President Mohammad Khatami's tenure, is also expected to run for president.
Recently, Ahmadinejad has been forced to deal with a series of problems overclouding his reign, including high inflation and unemployment rates, a drop in oil prices and calls to fire his interior minister, Ali Kordan, who admitted to holding a fake Oxford University degree.
This is not the first time such rumors are spread in Iran. Last January, reports on the Web had it that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is believed to be suffering from prostate gland cancer, had died. Several days later, he appeared in public and put an end to the rumors.
