Yes, Iran's presidential election matters

Despite Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's grip on power, Iranians still have a reason to head to the polls

Iran election
(Image credit: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

On Friday, Iranian voters will head to the polls to choose the successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hard-line Holocaust denier who has served as president for the last eight years.

In 2009, around 40 million people in Iran cast a ballot, a vote that was followed by massive protests — known as the Green Movement — against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for allegedly rigging the vote to deny victory to reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

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Keith Wagstaff is a staff writer at TheWeek.com covering politics and current events. He has previously written for such publications as TIME, Details, VICE, and the Village Voice.