In the context of living here in the past eight years, yes. We've lost unions. The house of cinema was closed down. The organization overseeing the budget was shut down. The economy is in a very bad shape, more due to lack of statesmanship within than sanctions imposed. There's a 30% official inflation rate, but actually the inflation rate is over 100%. The president has the executive power to remedy all these. Our relationship with other countries is a disgrace now. He has the power to improve that as well.

Pasdaran is under the rule of the Supreme leader. If he has given this election to the center-left, it's expected that he would keep Pasdaran in line. I'm not 100% positive, but I'm hopeful that the supreme leader sees no happy ending for himself in sight if he wants to go an as he did in the past 8 years. Executive branch also could champion the free speech by letting more newspapers into the circle of publishing, better internet access and many things that concern Iranians.

The guardian council's role outside the election is checking the laws congress passes and make sure they are not against the constitution. Their role in this matter is very little if you ask me. With this right wing congress, that's the least of president's problems.

Courts are a different branch and the executive branch has no jurisdiction over them, only the supreme leader does.

As for the foreign policy, the nuclear program of Iran and what's going on in Syria, there's a little wiggle room, and anything that can be accomplished relies heavily on how much the supreme leader wants to be lenient on these issues. For G8, maybe being hopeful is way too optimistic. For those of us living here, not so much. It impacts our lives for the better for sure.