[caption id="attachment_27769" align="alignright" width="300"] Supporters of Tehran's mayor, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, distribute yellow wristbands in Karaj, Iran.[/caption]
Supporters wear yellow wristbands, triggering speculation that Tehran mayor has chosen the colour for presidential candidacy
Supporters of Tehran's mayor,�Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, wore yellow wristbands and carried yellow banners as they welcomed their favourite potential nominee to their city on Wednesday.

Ghalibaf has not yet officially entered the presidential race but is widely expected to register before official deadline on Saturday.

His supporters' yellow wristbands and banner triggered speculation that he might have already chosen his campaign's colour in a move reminiscent of the previous vote in 2009 when the opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi created a massive momentum�by going green.

Ghalibaf, a so-called conservative "principlist", has formed a coalition with two others with similar political allegiances, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Gholam-Ali Haddadadel, a former parliamentary speaker. This year's elections is likely to become a battlefield between principlists, reformists, independents and the associates of the outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On Wednesday, Ghalibaf was speaking at a gathering in the city of Karaj, in Alborz province, where yellow-decked supporters greeted him carrying yellow placards. One placard said: "I vote for you only because of my leader [Khamenei]."

Local websites in Karaj, including�Alborznews, took the campaign colour angle. Iranian news agencies such as�Mehr�or Isna also published photo galleries of the event which prompted reactions online. But�Qomefarda, a local news website, quoted the event's organisers as saying yellow was merely the colour of�Ansar-e-Hezbollah, an Islamic group famous for its staunch supporter for Khamenei, and had nothing to do with the elections.

It is still not clear if only one nominee from Ghalibaf's conservative coalition, known as 2+1, would register or whether the three would do and later two would withdraw from the race in favour of one.

Since Tuesday�when candidates began to register�for 14 June vote, only a handful serious contenders have officially announced candidacy. The big players are yet to sign up.

In�Iran, eyes are on the former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad's close ally, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. The powerful Guardian council vets all candidates and the majority of nominees are often disqualify for reasons of competency or for not shown enough loyalty to the Islamic republic.

Rafsanjani who is currently the head of the country's expediency council � which mediates between the parliament and the Guardian council � used to enjoy a great deal of influence over Iranian politics in the past but his position has been badly weakened in the last decade both because of the allegations of corruption in his family and by confronting Khamenei.

Earlier this week,�video footage emerged�showing Ghalibaf voicing an unprecedented and strong criticism of Rafsanjani, accusing him of playing to the enemy by not putting aside his differences with Khamenei.

By The Guardian

 

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