Protests Against Disqualifications: From Rouhani to Ahmadinejad

Hassan Rouhani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Reform Front protested the widespread disqualification of presidential candidates. Rouhani said he has written a letter to Ali Khamenei about this matter. Hassan Khomeini also said that “if I were in the place of the approved candidates, I would withdraw.”

Following the widespread disqualification of Iran’s presidential election candidates, Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, has written a letter to Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic.

Rouhani said in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, June 5th, that he asked the leader of the Islamic Republic to “intervene in this matter if they deem it appropriate.” Rouhani also said that every time Article 113 of the Constitution has been brought to the attention of the Guardian Council, the council has not accepted the reminder and has based its interpretation of this article on its own understanding.

Article 113 of the Constitution states: “After the position of leadership, the president is the highest official position in the country and bears the responsibility of implementing the Constitution and heading the executive branch, except in matters directly related to leadership.”

This article, however, until before 1989 and the revision of the Constitution, had another clause that was deleted in that year following the revision: “Regulating relations between the three branches.”

Also, in 2012, following repeated disputes between presidents and the Guardian Council over the interpretation of this article, Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the Guardian Council, in response to a question from Kodkhoda’i, spokesperson of the council, about the interpretation of Article 113, wrote a letter on the basis of which the scope of the president’s authority was effectively limited such that many believe this interpretation has restricted the president to merely heading the cabinet and ministerial council.

The Problem of “National Interest and System Credibility”

Rouhani in his remarks at the cabinet meeting referred to the importance of elections and the widespread participation of people in them and said: “The presidential election is a very important matter and it is not only that the people should vote just for the head of the executive branch.”

Hassan Rouhani also, without naming any particular person, said: “The president should represent the Iranian people in foreign negotiations. If God forbid, there is low turnout in an election and it is not clear to the people what the issues are, then how will the national interest, security, and the credibility of the system in the world be?”

Ebrahim Raisi, who according to many observers is backed by the system and leadership and is likely to be the next president, is one of the most controversial figures in this election. He was a member of a body known as the “Death Committee” that in 1988 issued death sentences in several minutes-long trials for around four thousand prisoners who were serving final sentences.

Some Iranian activists outside the country are seeking to pursue this matter with European countries to ask them to issue a ban on Raisi’s entry into Europe.

“The Reform Front Has No More Candidates”

The Reform Front of Iran announced in a statement that it had nominated 9 candidates for the presidential election, all of whom were disqualified. Thus, this front has no candidate in this year’s presidential election.

This front accused the Guardian Council of “in a pre-planned effort, eliminating representatives of all different political currents in the country except for one specific current.”

In the Reform Front’s statement, it said: “This action, in our view, does not only mean the elimination of reformists, but its main message is the exclusion of the people from the decision-making process in the country’s affairs.”

The Reform Front attributed the result of this Guardian Council action to minimal public participation in the election and ultimately the holding of elections “with a specific preference” and wrote: “We present this report to the great people of Iran so that, as the true owners of the country, they are aware of our efforts and others’ destructive acts.”

Mostafa Tajzadeh, Mahmoud Sadeghi, Masoud Pezeshkian, Mohammad Shariatmadari, Mohsen Hashemi, Abbas Akhondi, Mostafa Kavakebian, Ishaq Jahangiri, and Zahra Shojaei were the 9 Reform Front candidates for the presidential election, all of whom were disqualified.

“If I Were in the Place of the Approved Candidates, I Would Withdraw”

Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, who himself refrained from registering as a presidential candidate following an instruction from Ali Khamenei, has also shown a strong reaction to the Guardian Council’s widespread disqualifications. The Jamaran website reported that he said such approaches suggest that “the spirit of people-averse and anti-republican thinking from the souls of the people’s enemies is being breathed into bodies and some unwittingly accept it in themselves.”

He called the Guardian Council’s method problematic even for those who passed through its filter and said: “Of course, the electoral rivals who safely crossed the pass have also been harmed, and if I were in their place, I would withdraw because the government emerging from this election has no ability to solve any problem.”

“Undermining the Credibility of the Guardian Council”

Mahmoud Sadeghi, a former member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and one of the disqualified Reform Front candidates, wrote in a statement issued about this: “Unfortunately, the narrow-minded and biased approach of the Guardian Council in reviewing candidates’ qualifications and eliminating the main rivals of the principalists, especially reformist candidates, took away the opportunity for meaningful competitive elections and deprived the majority of the Iranian people from active participation and proper choice.”

He considered the continuation of this situation as “undermining” the credibility of the Guardian Council institution and even the elected president.

Sadeghi also referred to the protest of Sadegh Larijani, who is himself a member of the Guardian Council, and the implicit criticism of Ebrahim Raisi regarding the non-competitive nature of the election, saying: “If this process in the past was only criticized by political activists, it now stands in the most explicit way possible as subject to criticism and protest by one of the Guardian Council members, and has even forced the most acceptable approved candidate to admit to the non-competitive nature of the existing list.”

Ebrahim Raisi, after announcing the names of those whose qualifications were approved, wrote on his Twitter: “Since yesterday evening when I was informed of the results of the qualification determination, perhaps you and the gentlemen themselves did not know, I received calls and I am conducting consultations so that the election scene becomes more competitive and participatory.”

Sadegh Amoli Larijani also said after the disqualifications were announced that he had always defended the Guardian Council’s performance but this action “left no room for any defense.” Sadegh Larijani’s brother, Ali Larijani, who was speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly for eight years and is currently a senior advisor to the leader of the Islamic Republic, was also disqualified by the Guardian Council.

Ahmadinejad and “the Danger of a Hunger Uprising”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served two consecutive terms as president and was explicitly supported by Khamenei after the controversial 2009 election, was also disqualified by the Guardian Council.

On his Telegram channel, he claimed that the night before the names of approved candidates were announced, Hossein Nejat, commander of the Tharallah garrison in Tehran and effectively responsible for Tehran’s security on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, went to his house and informed him of his disqualification.

According to this Telegram channel’s claim, Commander Nejat asked Ahmadinejad to “remain silent and cooperate” and said “there is no intention to arrest his supporters, who are party of God and revolutionary figures.”

Ahmadinejad said he neither accepts his disqualification nor remains silent about it. He said: “Do they expect me to cheer for them because of my own disqualification?”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued his customary criticism of the Rouhani administration and said: “During my administration, the Iranian people were satisfied, happy, and hopeful about the future, but now they are in many bad conditions.”

He said: “I feel the danger of a hunger uprising more each day than the day before.”

However, he considered the culprit for the current situation not just the government but the entire administration and said: “If I am disqualified and the situation becomes worse, which it certainly will, the people will no longer see this through the eyes of the government, but only through the eyes of the administration.”

Complaints About the Guards

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in another section of his post explicitly stated that during his presidency he had the support of the Guards Corps and he also seriously supported this military institution. He wrote: “During my eighth and ninth administrations, I provided substantial assistance to the Guards Corps from various aspects, and I was repeatedly mocked for this by political groups and opponents inside and outside the country. However, the Rouhani administration cut aid and created restrictions.”

He then complained to the Guards Corps that they had shown no reaction to the Rouhani administration’s statements against the two Ahmadinejad administrations. He continued: “I was always thinking about the Guards Corps members. Even when on the night of Eid, the Guards Corps intelligence did not have the money to pay the staff’s salaries, I gave them money. But instead, Mr. Baqaei, who did this work, is arrested and convicted on false charges of misappropriating public funds, and they bring such misery upon him that he takes dozens of nerve pills daily and cannot maintain his balance while walking.”

Ahmadinejad concluded his Telegram post: “I am confident that the country can be saved and I am completely capable of the work and have a plan and I know how the country should be managed.”

During Ahmadinejad’s two administrations, the heaviest U.S. sanctions against Iran were imposed. During these two periods, oil prices reached their highest levels in past years. In comparison with Mohammad Khatami’s administration, known as the reform government, during which oil prices fell to $10 per barrel, Ahmadinejad’s administration faced a record price of $147 per barrel and the average oil price during his eight-year period was between $100 and $110 per barrel.

According to OPEC’s announcement, during Ahmadinejad’s eight years as president, Iran earned more than $618 billion from oil exports. This is while the total oil revenues during Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s administration, known as the reconstruction government, did not exceed $141.7 billion. The total oil revenues of the reform administration were also $157.2 billion.

Source: DW