Parliamentary Elections and the Dream of a Single Slate
By: Ali Attaran
With the parliamentary poll slated for February 26, 2016, hustle and bustle is around among both Reformist and Principlist fronts to form electoral alliances. A new Reformist party, Ettehad-e Mellat, Unity of the Nation, announced formation on Thursday 20th of August, though today’s detention of its Secretary General Ali Shakouri Rad shows that for the Reformists, it’s an uphill battle to get into the parliament.
Principlists also have their own dream of unity. A trio of senior Principlist patrons including former head of the judiciary Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, Friday prayers’ leader and former member of the parliament Ayatollah Movahhedi Kermani, and Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, have been assigned with supervising the progress towards coalition between various Principlist groups. A congregation was held on Thursday August 27, attended by provincial secretaries of three major Principlist factions, the conservative Islamic Coalition Party, the hardliner Islamic Revolution Perseverance Front and the more influential Society of Devotees of the Islamic Revolution.
Javan, newspaper affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, called the gathering a “major step of the revolutionary forces for unity”, reporting that similar meetings have been held since last year under the direction of the conservative cleric Seyyed Reza Taghavi, former MP and current head of Policy Council for Friday Prayers’ Leaders. The newspaper traced back the efforts for bringing Principlist factions under one umbrella to the time of Rouhani’s election as president in June 2013. Principlists’ weak performance in the last presidential election, following their disagreement over a single candidate, raised strong criticism. Javan meanwhile expressed concern that ‘revisionist’ forces may cause rift inside the Principlist camp.
Reformist media covered the gathering in a less friendly tone. Ebtekar spoke of Principlists being “carried away” about the congregation and cast doubts over the real reason of Movahhedi Kermani's and Mohammad Yazdi’s absence in the gathering. Ebtekar also lamented, somewhat feigningly, the absence of senior figures of the Principlist camp such as Ali Larijani and Mohsen Rezaei from the congregation.
Ghanoon, another reformist daily, was more emotional in its report of the event: “everybody remembers how the Principlists were defeated and paralyzed in 2013 [presidential elections] because of their selfishness” the newspaper wrote, probably referring to the Perseverance Front and their endorsement of Saeed Jalili, chief nuclear negotiator before 2013, as presidential candidate. “Now the main culprits of Principlists’ defeat have become advocates of unity,” the newspaper added, criticizing the hush-hush gathering, claiming that it was held in that manner so as to conceal disagreements among the Principlist politicians. “Hardline Principlists have shown from the nuclear talks that they easily sacrifice national interests for personal and partisan interests. It is clear that they can’t relinquish their personal and political interests for a less important case of unity.”
(cover picture: Nasim, Saeed Faramarzi)