By Amir Paivar
WHEN IRAN’S conservatives held their first meeting to choose their joint candidate for this year’s presidential election, one of the five nominees was absent. He had sent a letter to the gathering saying he was too busy with work at Tehran municipality to attend electoral meetings.
Nevertheless, the 48-year-old Tehran mayor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dubbed “the man of people”, won the election and in August was sworn in as the Islamic Republic’s sixth president. He represents a new breed of young conservatives called Developers of Islamic Iran (Abadgaran), who have been coming to the fore first in local councils; then in the majlis, Iran’s parliament; and now at the centre of government.
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