“It’s time for you to come back again,” reads a slogan on a poster of the frontrunner in Friday’s presidential elections—a sentiment shared by many inhabitants of this dusty and arid southern region.

Images of the conservative but pragmatic cleric opening hydroelectric dams, giving a sermon, or just staring thoughtfully are cramming this water-starved area, where the only crops that grow are the pistachio nuts for which it is famed.

Rafsanjani, who served two terms as president between 1989-1997, was born in a clay house in the desert village of Bahreman, a sleepy place where ancient Honda motorbikes are the main traffic and the pistachio plantations extend for miles.

The ancestral home of one of the most recognizable and powerful political figures in the history of the Islamic republic is not yet a place of pilgrimage, but is still entered with reverence.

“Hashemi genuinely cares about people, therefore he is a good president. Even the foreigners like him!” gushed Abbas Ali Hossein, the guardian of the 70-year-old ayatollah’s properties in Bahreman.

“He should tackle unemployment and focus on solving people’s economic problems. The US sanctions have also given us problems and he should ask them to return our (frozen) assets,” he said in the shade of the house’s courtyard.

Small family details—such as the outdoor oven where his mother used to bake bread, the wind vent Rafsanjani built himself, or the small room where he was born—are already presented as artefacts of historic value.

Rafsanjani left home to attend studies at the clerical stronghold of Qom when he was 13 and is said to have returned regularly until his mother died six years ago.

Many people here claim to have met him, even to have had their insurance sorted out by the former president.

In fact, it is hard to find anyone with a bad word to say against Hashemi—as everyone calls him—in Bahreman or the larger town of Rafsanjan, 70 kilometres (40 miles) down the road.

Mohammad Javad Naghshnand has emptied his textile shop of all goods for the three weeks before the election and turned it into a campaign centre, with every inch of the walls plastered with posters of the turbaned cleric.

“Rafsanjani reconstructed around 80 towns and cities destroyed in the war with Iraq when he was president. But unfortunately not so much has been done under the current government (for the nearby earthquake-stricken town of Bam), and that is just one city,” he lamented.

Befitting someone who believes he has a surefire place in history, Rafsanjani has already created his own museum in Rafsanjan, part of a large culture and sports complex that would be the envy of any Iranian town this size.

The dozen or so rooms extol his achievements in religion, the Iran-Iraq war and reconstruction, accompanied by a bizarre collection of gifts from home and abroad—from a garish rickshaw given by Bangladesh to a St. George and the Dragon carving from the British ambassador.

Life-sized photos of the man himself look down on the exhibits, including one of the fresh-faced young cleric and his already determined gaze, and a rare image of Rafsanjani not in his religious dress surveying the battlefront in khaki uniform and a peaked hat.

Most telling though is the small collection of personal possessions—his glasses, first sofa, health certificate and membership card of the Basij vigilante militia—relics intended to inspire wonder in future generations.

But even here, people are keenly aware of the challenges should he emerge victorious in Friday’s vote, as Iran deals with desperately high youth unemployment and the problems posed by its enmity with the United States.

“I will definitely vote for Hashemi because he is worthy of the position. He can solve the unemployment problems of the youth, as young people are turning into drug addicts,” said Abbas Naghavii, 20, Bahreman’s only florist, as he decorated a car for a wedding.

Standing amid two gigantic pyramids of pistachios at his nut shop in Rafsanjan, Mohammad Reza Saberi also earmarked joblessness as the main priority.

“I have three sons: two with bachelors degrees and one with a masters, and none of them have solid jobs,” he said.

“He also should tackle international issues so that Iran becomes a dear friend of the world and is not blamed for everything that happens. He must look to the international economy so that I can export my pistachios and the foreigners will never fault my commodity!” he said.