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By Samuel P. Jacobs CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Seeking to raise money for the New Hampshire Republican Party, state chairwoman Jennifer Horn recently called the party's national boss, Reince Priebus, with a question: Could he get Rand Paul to visit? The request, and Paul's appearance here last Monday in a room packed with 500 Republicans, spoke volumes about the party as its followers - some energized by the scandals surrounding Democratic President Barack Obama's administration - are already looking to the 2016 elections. ...
By Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's clerical rulers may have sought to remove any challenge to their grip by barring two vivid contenders from next month's presidential election, but they risk alienating voters already disillusioned by the violent aftermath of the 2009 poll. The June 14 vote will have little bearing on the policies that have long put Iran at odds with the West - ranging from its nuclear program to its support for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah guerrillas. ...
Iran's Ahmadinejad says will challenge ally's ban from election
22 May 2013 at 12:14am
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday he would take up the ban of his close aide from the June 14 presidential election with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian media reported. Iran's electoral watchdog on Tuesday disqualified Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, Ahmadinejad's former chief of staff, and moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from running in the vote, eliminating two powerful and potentially disruptive candidates and leaving the field dominated by hardliners loyal to Khamenei. "I introduced Mr. ...
By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a scandal about the targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny, plans to assert her constitutional right not to answer questions from a congressional committee on Wednesday. "She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course," Lerner's attorney, William Taylor, wrote on Monday to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that is holding hearings into the IRS scandal. ...
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said on Tuesday that it had heard that the Guardian Council, which is vetting candidates for next month's presidential election, had barred former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and a leading ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running. If true, the exclusion of Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a former chief of staff to Ahmadinejad detested by the clerical establishment, would leave the presidential race dominated by hardline conservatives close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. ...
Iranians face new Internet curbs before presidential election
21 May 2013 at 5:27am
By Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranians are struggling with slower Internet speeds and limited access ahead of an unpredictable presidential election that has put hardline Islamist authorities on alert for possible unrest. Experts and web users say they believe the Internet obstacles are related to the June 14 presidential vote, the first since 2009 polls in which accusations of fraud - denied by the government - kindled months of protests organised in part via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. ...
By Jason Lange and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chances of a deal between Democratic and Republican lawmakers that would overhaul the tax system, trim government spending and reform safety net spending programs appear to be fading. A sudden improvement in the outlook for the government deficit over the next decade has alleviated some of the pressure on lawmakers to act. And a spate of scandals, involving the Internal Revenue Service, security for the U.S. ...
By Helen Murphy BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos hinted on Friday that he would seek re-election next year to ensure continuity of his policies - including peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels - though he did not explicitly announce his candidacy. "I want clearly and firmly to see that the government's policies continue after August 7, 2014," Santos said, referring to the date a new administration would take office. "I want the peace policy re-elected, I want the housing policy re-elected, those that have reduced poverty - re-elected," he told reporters in Bogota. ...
By Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI (Reuters) - Some 100 legislators are demanding a ban on two top independent candidates including ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from Iran's June presidential election in what may be a further move to thwart any brewing challenge to the clerical supreme leader. The petition by parliamentarians to Iran's Guardian Council emerged three days after the electoral watchdog said outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may face charges for accompanying former aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the other high-profile independent, to register on Saturday for the vote. ...
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may face charges for accompanying an ally to register for the June presidential vote, the electoral watchdog said, in a possible move by rival conservative hardliners keen to pre-empt any challenge to Iran's clerical supreme leader. After mass protests that followed the 2009 election, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have looked to next month's vote to install a loyal conservative president but the surprise candidacies of two major independents could rewrite that script. ...
By Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - After the huge protests that followed the 2009 election, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have hoped June polls would quietly install a loyal conservative president, but the surprise candidacies of two major independents may scupper that. Both Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the nationalist protégé of outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and Iran's best known political grandee, are seen as a threat to the leader's authority. ...
By Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - After the huge protests that followed the 2009 election, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have hoped June polls would quietly install a loyal conservative president, but the surprise candidacies of two major independents may scupper that. Both Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the nationalist protégé of rabble-rousing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and Iran's best known political grandee, are seen as a threat to the leader's authority. ...
Egypt court to rule next month on challenge to upper house
12 May 2013 at 9:40am
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's highest court will rule next month on the legality of the upper house of parliament, judicial sources said on Sunday, in a case that throws more legal doubt over a political transition repeatedly disrupted by lawsuits. A ruling against the Muslim Brotherhood-led upper house by the Supreme Constitutional Court on June 2 could lead to the dissolution of the chamber and result in legislative power being transferred to President Mohamed Mursi. The case, brought by an independent parliamentary candidate, stems from a similar challenge to the lower house last year. ...
Ahmadinejad protégé poses challenge to Iran's leader
11 May 2013 at 11:06am
By Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nationalist protégé Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie is one of the most divisive men in Iran, and if he is allowed to stand in June's presidential election, it would be a direct challenge to the authority of the supreme leader. Mashaie brought to an end years of speculation on Saturday by registering as a candidate in an election that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hopes will usher in a period of much needed calm and unity. ...
By Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani threw himself into Iran's election race on Saturday as a flurry of heavyweight candidates rushed to beat the registration deadline in the most unpredictable contest for decades. Iranian media reported that Rafsanjani - a relative moderate - had registered for the June 14 presidential election with just minutes to spare. His candidacy radically alters what was previously seen as a contest between rival conservative groups. ...
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