Ode to Elation

(Photo: Shahin Nobari/Borna News)

As the moderate government of Iran and the Reformists were celebrating the official announcement of the Implementation Day, the Guardian Council seized the opportunity to slash their electoral slate.

In one of its most stringent electoral purges, the body in charge of approving candidates’ qualification for elections has barred nearly 55 percent of the nominees, among them not only heavyweights of the Reformist camp but also lesser known figures, from stepping in for the upcoming elections of the Majles, the parliament, that is planned to be held in February this year.

The list of disqualified candidates includes:

a. former Reformist members of the parliament including Daryoush Ghanbari, Reformist MP from Ilam (Ghanbari has claimed that the majority of Reformist candidates in Ilam Province have been dismissed), Fatemeh Rake'i and Ahmad Hakimipour (the latter is a member of the sixth parliament and current member of Tehran City Council).

b. sons of fathers: Ali Motahhari, son of the revered revolutionary cleric Morteza Motahhari,  a vocal MP who has gained strong popularity among the Reformists for candid criticisms of powerful bodies in the establishment, Mohsen and Fatemeh Hashemi, son and daughter of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Morteza Eshraghi, grandson of the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Khomeini.

c. low-key Reformists such as Mohsen Mehralizadeh, head of the Physical Education Department during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, and Elyas Hazrati, editor-in-chief of the Reformist E’temad newspaper.

d. members of Ahmadinejad administration including Hojatollah Damyad, former governor of Kermanshah Province, Fazel Shahbazi, former governor of Kurdistan province, and the best-known of all Akbar Nikzad, Minister of Roads and Urban Development in the second cabinet of Ahmadinejad.

e. current members of the parliament including Kamaloddin Pirmoazzen, Reformist MP from Ardebil, Mohammad Damadi (Sari), and Salar Moradi (Sanandaj).

Among those Reformist nominees who have had the chance to pass the filter, Mohammad-Reza Aref, prominent Reformist figure who has served as Vice President of Mohammad Khatami  and aspires to the position of parliamentary speaker, Alireza Mahjoub and Soheila Jelodarzadeh, figures close to Hashemi Rafsanjani and both members of the Islamic Labour Party, and Massoud Pezeshkian, MP from Tabriz and former Minister of Health in Khatami’s cabinet, are notable figures. Mohammad-Reza Tabesh, another Reformist member and nephew of Mohammad Khatami, is also among those qualified.

In an interview with ILNA, Akbar Shakouri-Rad, Secretary General of the recently-established Reformist party Ettehad-e Mellat (Unity of the Nation), has stated that the Reformist camp will not sulk even in case of massive electoral purges. Yet it is clear that disqualifications will heavily reduce the Reformist dream, however idealistic that had been, of acquiring the majority, or a vocal minority, in the parliament. As the euphoria from the JCPOA fades, political uproar over the disqualifications will begin; though it seems hardly likely that the Guardian Council will cave in vis-a-vis pressures.