Iran bans Hashemi Rafsanjani from running in presidential election While seen as a conservative, he was deemed to be a "pragmatist" who was willing to pursue political reform and reconciliation with the West. He also fell out with the Supreme Leader after criticising the crackdown on anti-government protests in 2009, and his younger daughter, Faezeh, recently served a six month prison sentence for her role in the disturbances that followed. That he is now considered an enemy of the political establishment, however, means that he could potentially have attracted many votes from the Green Revolution camp, who have no real candidate of their own in the contest. Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei has also been blocked from standing. On Tuesday night, it was claimed that Mr Rafsanjani had been barred from the contest on the grounds of his advanced age. However, in a country whose power elite is dominated by elderly clerics - the Supreme Leader himself is 73 and said to be in bad health - few were convinced. "Hardliners are extremely afraid that he will win the vote," said Saeed Leilaz, a political analyst. One powerful cleric, Ayatollah Mohieddin Haeri Shirazi, sent a letter to the Supreme Leader saying "omitting a prominent figure from the election was incompatible" with giving wide choices to voters, Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency reported. The blocking of Mr Mashaei's candidacy, meanwhile, appears to be related to the Supreme Leader's parallel fallout with Mr Ahmadinejad. While he originally backed Mr Ahmadinejad's disputed electoral victory in 2005, he is understood to have subsequently come to the conclusion that Mr Ahmadinejad's populist style risked eclipsing his own authority. Mr Mashaei, whose daughter is married to Mr Ahmadinejad's oldest son, has also upset the clerical establishment because of his political approach, which emphasises Iran's strong sense of national identity, as opposed to its religious one. The exclusion of both Mr Mashaei and Mr Rafsanjani means the way is now clear for pro-Khamenei candidates to dominate the presidential race. By Mr Khamenei's calculations, that may discourage a repeat of the violence that took place after the 2009 election. However, it also risks robbing the election of any real contest, which could encourage the very kind of street protests he wishes to avoid.