Three years after his landslide election in June 2005, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad's popularity has declined markedly due to an economic malaise largely of his own making. With opposition to the president stiffening among both reformists and rival conservatives, his prospects for reelection next year are in doubt. Ahmadi-nejad, a former mayor of Tehran, was elected to office with 62% of the vote, nearly double that of his rival, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Capitalizing on a wave of public disillusionment with the previous reformist administration of President Mohammad Khatami, and on growing hardships faced by rural and working class Iranians, Ahmadi-nejad ran on a platform that blended conservative social values, a populist economic agenda, and militant nationalism.
