Filephoto of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani during a meeting at Marmar Palace in Tehran on June 8, 2005. [Photo/IC]

Rafsanjani was elected chairman of the Iranian parliament in 1981 and served until 1989. He also served as president of Iran from 1989 to 1997. In 2005, he ran for a third term in office, placing first in the first round of elections but ultimately losing to hardline rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the run-off round of the 2005 presidential election.

He has been described as a pragmatic centrist. He supported a free market position domestically, favoring privatization of state-owned industries, and a moderate position internationally, seeking to avoid conflict with the U.S. and the West.

In May 2013, Rafsanjani entered the race for the June 2013 presidential elections, but he was not qualified by the Guardian Council. Instead, he supported the incumbent President Hassan Rouhani.