The Second Debate of the 2021 Election: A Contest of Distraction and Slander

The second round of debates for the 2022 presidential election was held on social, political, and cultural issues. The first round of the debate, which focused on economic issues, was met with little reception. The second round was a repeat of the same rhetoric.

The second round of debates between candidates for the 1400 presidential election was held on Tuesday, June 8, and lasted a total of three and a half hours.

The second round of the debate had a pre-defined rule and a structure more or less similar to the first round. After each candidate's speaking time, the microphones were turned off.

The second round of the debate was divided into two parts. At the beginning of each part, questions were randomly assigned to the candidates, after which the candidates had the opportunity to answer these questions.

After that, in the first part, each candidate had two opportunities to respond to issues raised by the other candidates, and in the second part, after answering questions and expressing opinions, each candidate had a four-minute opportunity to present a summary of their views.

The common thread among the participants in this debate was the distraction and jumping to conclusions about the issues in question. Most of the criticism, especially in the speeches of Ebrahim Raisi, Mohsen Rezaei, Alireza Zakani, Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, and Saeed Jalili, was directed at the performance of the Rouhani government.

Abdolnaser Hemmati, like Hassan Rouhani, seeks the root of the problems in the White House, and Mohsen Mehralizadeh seeks the root of the problems in the performance of representatives of other branches of power in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

What did they say?

Ebrahim Raisi, defending his “education level” plan, accused other candidates of “immorality.” Rezaei also criticized the behavior of the current government officials.

In his speech, Mohsen Rezaei called “word therapy” ineffective. He said “hope” is visible and claimed that his government is going to “return hope to the people’s tables and smiles to their faces.” He said: “I promise the people that 1400 is the year of opening.”

Mohsen Rezaei called the Rouhani government a "sleepy" government that sleeps at night and the price of gasoline increases in the morning.

In response to the public's loss of trust in the government, Saeed Jalili called for an end to the shows and said that real work must be done. However, he did not provide an explanation about the content of the real work.

Distracted speech

One of the most striking examples of the confusion was seen in Mohsen Mehralizadeh's response. He was asked about Trump's maximum pressure policy and what his plans were for lifting sanctions were.

In response, he only said that the JCPOA must be saved; and spent the rest of his time attacking Raisi and the issue of "immoralities."

Mehr Alizadeh asked how we should define morality and immorality. Then she announced once again that Raisi had studied six grades and that the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation had censored five minutes of his promotional video; she said, “The Iranian Broadcasting Corporation has become a love interest.”

Abdul Nasser Hemmati also preferred to hide behind general slogans, saying that he was against monopolization in the economy, culture, and media; he said that the choice was not between bad and worse, good and better, but between openness and closure. He then claimed that he would be the “voice of the voiceless” and the “power of the powerless.”

Debate and ethnicities and minorities

As in previous debates, the candidates once again mentioned ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities before the election. They praised Azerbaijanis and called for an increase in the share of “Sunni brothers” in executive positions.

Raisi thanked the Azeri speakers for their support and comfort, and Mehralizadeh responded by saying that there is no Azeri speaker in Iran and that they are Turkic speakers.

Ghazizadeh Hashemi showed the map of the unemployed in Iran's border areas in front of the camera and said that things have reached a point where Baloch citizens have been forced to choose between life and bread by taking fuel and Kurdish citizens by taking coal.

Rezaei also spoke of the need for major “surgeries” to combat poverty in Iran. He and Raisi considered combating poverty possible through the authoritative implementation of policies. Rezaei spoke of “jihadi management.”

Debate and the phenomenon of youth and women

Women and youth were also among the issues that the presidential candidates addressed in many parts of their statements.

Zakani said that the youth are tired. Hemmati also said that 60 percent of the youth will not vote. He spoke about the emigration of the youth abroad.

Regarding women, each tried to outdo the other. Hemmati condemned the sending of “fear messages.” Mehralizadeh said he would increase the number of women in the cabinet. He spoke of the three female ministers in his cabinet and claimed that if the parliament did not give them a vote of confidence, he would use them at the deputy level.

Hemmati went a step further and said he would allocate five cabinet ministers to women. And Ghazizadeh Hashemi said, “As the elections approach, we start to think about women and the kolbarans.” He said that he would make the entire cabinet women so that no one could stand up to him, and added sarcasm.

Rezaei said that he would consider salaries for housewives. In this debate, there was talk of eliminating the entrance exam and military service, and to encourage young people to get married, it was even said that a loan of 500 million tomans would be considered.

Attack on the Rouhani government

Zakani spoke of the oppression of those who are responsible for the current situation. He spoke of inflation of 49 and 52 percent and blamed it on the Central Bank and Abdul Nasser Hemmati.

Zakani even announced the arrest of 26 spies in the Rouhani government; he blamed the government's actions for causing corruption and rent-seeking; and he blamed the high price of children's diapers on the actions of the Rouhani government.

He considered the high cost of housing to be a factor in the decline in the marriage rate in Iran, calling it a disaster created by the Rouhani government; he said that 28 percent of the salaries of people in other cities and 56 percent of the salaries of Tehran citizens are spent on housing.

In another part of his speech, Zakani said that the country cannot be run by a “caricature.” He claimed that he could eradicate poverty within a year.

Rezaei also spoke of dirty and mafia-like rent, and Zakani said that 95 percent of smuggling is injected through government-affiliated channels, smuggling that involves both imports and exports.

Zakani criticized Hemmati's statement that he was the voice of the Kolbars, saying that $25 billion in smuggling was being transferred through the Kolbars, and complained that the Rouhani government and those who worked in that government had not taken action against it.

Ebrahim Raisi also called on Hemmati to be responsible for the country's economic problems, saying that a bomb has exploded on people's tables every day, but no action has been taken.

Ghazizadeh Hashemi also criticized the government's lack of success in containing the coronavirus, saying that the government has failed to import the coronavirus vaccine.

He compared Iran's coronavirus death toll to that of South Korea, Vietnam, and China, and blamed the Rouhani government for the high number of coronavirus deaths. There was even talk of the Ministry of Health mafia in the debate.

Hemmati, in defense of himself and the Rouhani government, said that Iran's foreign exchange earnings last year were $5 billion and pointed to the negative investment and production rates in Iran.

Zakani also accused officials of "aristocraticism" and said that if he wins the election, he will force officials to serve the people; he said he will stop the corrupt from breathing; and he will put an end to tribalism and gang warfare.

He accused the Central Bank and Hemmati of illegally transferring 1,200 billion tomans from the Central Bank to a private bank at the end of office hours before Nowruz.

Summary of the second debate

The Shafaqna website, citing a poll, said that three out of ten people had watched the first debate. Mental confusion and rambling, lack of a clear plan, and slandering each other are among the issues that rule out the possibility of the debate being welcomed by most people.