Khamenei allies crush Ahmadinejad in elections, pointing to end of Iranian presidency

Ayatollah Khamenei has jousted repeatedly with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — as well as the two previous presidents — so the supreme leader secured this majority at Mr. Ahmadinejad’s expense.

The ayatollah will seek “to eliminate the post of president,” said Aliakbar Mousavi Khoeini, a former reformist member of the Parliament now living in exile in the United States.

“If they can get that, they will not hold the next presidential election; instead, Parliament will chose a prime minister,” he said. “Then Khamenei will essentially have everything he does approved and pushed through Parliament by his allies.”…

Ayatollah Khamenei is not expected to try to eliminate the presidency until Mr. Ahmadinejad’s second term expires in June 2013. “Ahmadinejad is an unpredictable maverick, so it’s not in Khamenei’s interests to make him feel totally humiliated,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst and often sharp government critic at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.