State-controlled media in Iran report that former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative who served two terms, has registered to run in Iran's May 19 presidential vote.
Ahmadinejad won two successive terms in 2005 and 2009 before being replaced by Rouhani in 2013.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has advised Ahmadinejad not to run for president in the May elections, saying his potential candidacy would "polarise" the general atmosphere governing the country. Just when it appeared Ahmadinejad would be leaving, he turned around and returned to the Interior Ministry's registration desk, pulling out his identification documents with a flourish in front of a melee of shouting journalists.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recommended Ahmadinejad not enter the contest.
Khamenei, who has the final say in Iran's clerical establishment, said in September that Ahmadinejad's candidacy could create division in the country and harm the nation.
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In an announcement late March, Ahmadinejad, while formally endorsing Baghaei, highlighted that he felt called upon to make sure that "mistakes committed in 2013 won't happen", a reference to disqualification of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close confident of him, in the 2013 presidential elections. Under Iranian law, he became eligible to run again after four years out of office.
The registration will last for five days and all the hopefuls will undergo the subsequent vetting process by the country's high legislative body, namely the Guardian Council of the Constitution.
"I registered merely to support Baghaei and I will act according to the [supreme] leader's advice", he said.
Iran's clergy and ultra conservatives are also hoping for a strong candidate to rival Rowhani, in the form of 57-year-old conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also saw through the ruse from the start, pointing to Rouhani's statement a decade earlier that he'd deceived the West to advance Iran's nuclear program. Western belief he was secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons programme led to crippling global sanctions during his time in office, and protests at his 2009 re-election were met with a crackdown which sent hundreds to prison and left dozens of people dead. But, he is widely expected to do so, and the reformist camp in Iran has already picked him as its chosen candidate.
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