The campaign for the forthcoming presidential elections is gradually gaining steam amid a war of words between the incumbent president Hassan Rouhani and his foes from the conservatives' camp.
Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf took the leadership in facing Rouhani's team and the two parties engaged in heated debates on television on Friday, trading mudslinging over economic issues and corruption, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.
Eshaq Jahangiri, first vice president, defended the government in its policies to combat financial corruption and goods' trafficking, telling the Iranian people via the TV that the administration succeeded in decreasing smuggling from $ 25 billion per year to $ 12 billion.
Addressing his foes during the Friday encounter, Jahangiri charged that they represented the former government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the party responsible for the current economic woos.
The posture of Rouhani's team appeared more balanced and composed as compared to their foes' stance. Ghalibaf appeared nervous and agitated as he charged that the president and his deputy owned "cheap realty plots."
Rouhani disclosed that when he was member in the Supreme Council of the National Security, during the 2005 elections, he had "possessed Ghalibaf's file", adding that he, gallantly, stood against bids to disclose some of the private affairs of his electoral foe.
The incumbent president also directed rhetoric against the other contender, Ebrahim Raisi, arguing that the latter should not have made accusations against the government over corruption.
"You yourself have not confronted the corruption files, although you are well aware of them and belong to the judiciary and the country's public prosecution," Rouhani said.
Raisi, a turbaned religious figure, served as Attorney General from 2014 to 2016, and Deputy Chief Justice from 2004 to 2014. He was also Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran in 1980s and 1990s.
"Some want to reinstate the former government through promises that cannot be honored," Rouhani said, urging his critics to reveal the financial resources with which they intend to implement their economic pledges for the nation.
Raisi accused the government of neglecting the poor and the deprived, claiming that all economic ventures inaugurated by the president over the past months "implied electoral and propaganda objectives."
However, Rouhani answered arguing that these projects had been enlisted in the government manifesto.
According to the conservatives' polls, Rouhani and Ghalibaf would draw an equal number of votes in the coming elections.
Rouhani, supported by reformists, is running for the elections against five other candidates, including Jahangiri, former minister Mostafa Hashemitaba, three conservatives and former minister of Islamic Guidance Mostafa Mir-Salim. The campaign is shedding light at popular gatherings, held in various parts of the capital, on youth demands, unemployment and economic recession as well as narrowing the gulf between the rich and the poor.
The presidential elections will be held the same day to elect members of the City and Village Councils.

Source: BNA