Widespread Disqualifications in Parliamentary Elections | When Iran’s Regime Doesn’t Even Trust Its Own Representatives

The widespread disqualifications in this year’s parliamentary elections have even provoked criticism from the regime’s own representatives, and it appears these elections have become more closed and one-sided than any previous election cycle.

As the eleventh parliamentary elections are scheduled for February 21, the disqualifications of several prominent current parliament members have placed these representatives among those protesting these rejections.

According to official reports, 97 out of 247 current members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly who had registered to run in the eleventh parliamentary elections have been disqualified.

Among the prominent current parliament members who failed to obtain approval from the Guardian Council are Ali Motahari, Mahmoud Sadeghi, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, Behrouz Nemati, Elias Hazrati, Tayebeh Siavoshi, Gholamreza Heidari, Mohammad Ali Vakili, Hamideh Zarabad, and Mahdi Sheikh Asli.

These disqualifications have been less intense among conservatives. Among the disqualified current conservative parliament members are Mohammad Ali Pourmokhtar, Mohsen Kouhkan, Seyyed Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, Nader Ghazi Pour, Gholamreza Kateb, and Hossein Maqsoudi.

The Islamic Republic has implemented widespread disqualifications of current representatives while approving these same representatives in the previous term, demonstrating that Iran’s regime cannot even tolerate individuals to whom it had previously granted permission to serve in parliament.

Previously, a U.S. State Department spokesperson reacted to the disqualifications of candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections by the Guardian Council appointees of Khamenei, describing the remaining candidates as “all the same.”

Morgan Ortagus tweeted that the Guardian Council, whose members are appointed by Khamenei, has disqualified most candidates in Iran’s parliamentary elections. It is no coincidence that all remaining candidates look the same.

However, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a current parliament member, is among the disqualified candidates who tweeted to Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman of the Guardian Council, saying: “You have disqualified 90 percent of candidates from one rooted political faction, yet you still speak of competitive elections?! As one conservative candidate put it, what value does victory in an unopposed field have?!”

Reports also indicate that from the National Alliance Party, Farid Mousavi, the current representative of Tehran’s people in parliament, is the only party member approved in Tehran. In the National Trust Party, around 50 party members had registered for elections, with approximately 13 of them rejected in the first round and the remainder disqualified in the second round.

Ali Motahari, a parliament member who was also disqualified, noted in a memo that the reason cited for his disqualification, based on clause 2 of article 28 of the parliamentary election law—”practical commitment to Iran’s sacred Islamic Republic system”—was unclear to him, and stated: “No matter how much I think about it, I cannot remember where I failed to have practical commitment to the Islamic Republic system. Presumably their definition of ‘system’ is the system of the leadership. If I have held views different from the leadership’s views somewhere—and I have—this is exactly what the leadership itself has requested, as they have said several times, including in a meeting with students, that it is possible for someone to hold opposing views and should be free to express them.”

These widespread disqualifications occur as election boycott discussions are louder than ever in Iranian society. For instance, students in recent protests expressed their demand with the slogan “No ballot box, no votes, boycott elections.”

Brian Hook, the U.S. Special Envoy for Iran at the State Department, called the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iran “a show” where winners and losers are predetermined by the clergy.

Previously, Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State, in a message while expressing support for the Iranian people, stated that the regime is engaged in manipulating and committing fraud in parliamentary elections.

Source: Voice of America