Efforts in Iranian Parliament for a Military Figure’s Presidency; Iran’s Parliament Opposes Ban on Military Registration in Elections

Concurrent with the review of the electoral law amendment bill in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, this institution—which is controlled by conservatives approved by the leader—has taken another step toward the possible presidency of a Revolutionary Guards member in Iran’s elections several months away.

In the electoral law amendment bill in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, there is a clause regarding relevant background for individuals to be candidates in presidential elections, which explicitly uses the phrase “senior commanders of the armed forces with the rank of field marshal and above.” On Sunday, December 20, the representative from Besanabad proposed that this clause be deleted, but parliament members rejected the proposal so that individuals with military backgrounds would openly have the conditions to participate in elections.

Jason Brodsky, head of policy for the “United Against Nuclear Iran” group based in New York, commenting on this bill, says the majority of parliament members’ support for this opposition is significant.

Last year in parliamentary elections, the Guardian Council—an institution appointed by the leader—did not allow any independent or critical candidates to participate, and in an election with low turnout, conservatives close to parliamentary affairs took control, and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a failed candidate in two presidential elections, became the head of this institution.

Iran’s thirteenth presidential election is scheduled to be held in June of next year. Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State, on November 8, in response to a tweet from the English account of Syed Ali Khamenei questioning elections in America, wrote: “You personally have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from the Iranian people. Your elections are a joke and hundreds of people are disqualified just to participate in them.”

Until now, the presence of military figures in Iranian elections had been legally and conventionally rejected, but it appears that recent actions in parliament are aimed at paving the way for the presence of prominent Revolutionary Guards figures as candidates in next year’s elections. Of course, some also say that raising the names of military commanders is a “regime trick” to increase participation and, as it were, to heat up the election oven. In last year’s parliamentary elections, the Islamic Republic’s official statistics say that 41 percent of the country’s eligible voters participated and 22 percent in Tehran participated in the elections, which was the lowest participation rate in the past 41 years in the Islamic Republic.

Public dissatisfaction with the country’s situation, financial crisis, and the government’s inability to resolve problems, as well as widespread corruption among senior officials and their relatives, have caused disillusionment among Iranians.

The poor economic situation has worsened in recent months at a time when new dimensions of widespread financial corruption by persons and institutions affiliated with the Islamic Republic regime are being revealed every day. Economic corruption cases of people close to the government and unlimited financial support from Iran’s regime to terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas are among these corruptions.

America says the Islamic Republic spends its national wealth on supporting terrorist groups and destabilizing the Middle East instead of its people. America says the Islamic Republic spends its national wealth on supporting terrorist groups and destabilizing the Middle East instead of its people. The United States has also repeatedly condemned institutionalized financial corruption and the plundering of Iran’s God-given resources by affiliates of the ruling regime in this country, considering them among the main causes of Iran’s economic and financial problems.

Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State, said recently on this matter: “The people of Iran spoke clearly and loudly. They rejected forty years of corruption and abuse and demanded an end to plundering and an end to choosing the interests of foreign operatives over the interests of the Iranian people.”

Source: Voice of America