Raeisi Aims to Put an End to Corruption

Presidential candidate and current Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeisi said he will put an end to corruption and financial wrongdoings in the country.
Speaking on state television, Raeisi, who has earned a reputation for stepping up the fight against corruption in his capacity as chief justice, said prosecution at the judiciary is the last resort.
“The judiciary entering the fray is a last resort; and if the country’s laws are reformed, the judicial apparatus would not need to enter [at all]. Merely proceeding with legal cases and confronting wrongdoers will not eradicate corruption; the mechanisms need to be set right,” Raeisi said.
“Rentier-seeking and corruption negatively affect people, and we will end rentier-seeking and corruption in the country,” he said.
Iran ranks 149th on the Berlin-based Transparency International’s 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks countries “by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.” New Zealand ranks 1st, and Somalia appears at the bottom, ranking 179th.

Raeisi said state contracts need to be made transparent to everyone. “Everywhere in the world, only security matters are confidential. All other matters need be made known to the people.”
Iran is holding its 13th presidential election on June 18. Raeisi is running against six other candidates, including four fellow-Principlists.
All of the candidates have so far been focusing on the economy, battered by sanctions and mismanagement in recent years. And nearly all of them have been attacking the economic policies of the President Hassan Rouhani administration. The former governor of the central bank, Nasser Hemmati, and Mohsen Mehralizadeh, a low-profile reformist, are also running.