2005 Presidential Campaign
Karroubi was among the reformist candidates in the presidential election of 2005, where he finished third in the vote count, closely following the front runners, ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As neither gathered a majority of the vote, a run-off election was held on June 24, 2005, and won by Ahmadinejad.
After the announcement of the election results, Karroubi alleged that a network of mosques, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Basij militia forces had been illegally used to generate and mobilize support for Ahmadinejad. He then explicitly alleged that Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, was among the conspirators. Ayatollah Khamenei wrote to Karroubi, characterizing these allegations as "below his dignity" and warning that they would "result in a crisis" in Iran, which he would not allow. Karroubi responded in an open letter, resigning from all his political posts, including that as adviser to the Supreme Leader and as a member of Expediency Discernment Council, both of which he had been appointed to by Khamenei. The day after, on June 20, distribution of the reformist morning newspapers Eghbal, Hayat-e No, Aftab-e Yazd, and Etemad were stopped by the prosecutor-general of Tehran, Saeed Mortazavi, for publishing Karroubi's letter, with Eghbal being completely banned from publication. It was claimed that Karroubi was subject to house arrest because of his letter.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who ranked first in the first round, also pointed to organized and unjust interventions, alleged manipulation of the vote, and supported Karroubi's complaint.
Read more about this topic: Mehdi Karroubi
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