Abstract
After a campaign that focused on the need to resolve the nuclear crisis and lift UN sanctions, in June 2013, Hassan Rouhani was elected president of Iran. In July 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which set forth a plan according to which sanctions on Iran would be lifted in return for verifiable curbs on its nuclear program, was signed between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany). But as the JCPOA lifted crippling sanctions on the Iranian economy, it
also raised the Iranian population’s expectations regarding tangible improvements in their everyday lives—and by all
accounts, these expectations have not yet been met. On May 19, more than a year after “implementation day” of the deal in January 2016, Iranians go to the polls to choose among six candidates vying for the presidency.