Efforts in the Islamic Consultative Assembly for a Presidency for a Military Member; Iranian Parliament Opposes Ban on Military Registration in Elections

As the Islamic Consultative Assembly reviews the electoral law reform bill, this body, which is controlled by conservatives approved by the Supreme Leader, has taken another step towards the possible presidency of a member of the Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran's elections in a few months.

In the draft amendment to the election law in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, there is a clause that explicitly uses the phrase “supreme commanders of the armed forces with the rank of major general and above” regarding the effective records for individuals to run for the presidential election. On Sunday, December 20, a representative from Basanabad proposed removing this clause, but the members of the Assembly rejected this proposal so that individuals with military records would be eligible to participate in the elections.

Jason Brodsky, policy director for the New York-based group "Alliance Against Nuclear Iran," said in response to the plan that the majority of members of parliament support this opposition is significant.

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

Iran's 13th presidential election is scheduled to be held in June next year. On November 8, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to a tweet by Seyyed Ali Khamenei's British account that questioned the US election, tweeting: "You have personally stolen hundreds of millions of dollars of the Iranian people's money. Your election is a joke and hundreds of people are being disqualified from even participating in it."

Until now, the presence of the military in Iranian elections was legally and conventionally rejected, but it seems that recent actions in the parliament are aimed at paving the way for prominent figures from the Revolutionary Guards to appear as candidates in next year's elections. Of course, some also say that bringing up the names of military commanders is a "system trick" to increase participation and, so to speak, heat up the election. In last year's parliamentary elections, official statistics from the Islamic Republic say that the participation rate in the country was 41 percent and in Tehran, 22 percent of eligible voters participated in the elections, which was the lowest participation rate in the past 41 years in the Islamic Republic.

People's dissatisfaction with the country's situation, the financial crisis, and the government's inability to resolve problems, as well as widespread corruption among senior officials and their relatives, have discouraged people in Iran.

The poor economic situation has worsened in recent months as new dimensions of widespread financial corruption by individuals and institutions affiliated with the Islamic Republic regime are revealed every day. These include cases of economic corruption involving individuals close to the government and the Iranian regime's unlimited financial support for terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

The United States says the Islamic Republic is spending its wealth on supporting terrorist groups and destabilizing the Middle East instead of its people. The United States says the Islamic Republic is spending its 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 looting of Iran’s God-given assets by affiliates of the ruling regime in the country, and has considered them to be among the main causes of Iran’s economic and financial problems.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently said: "The Iranian people have spoken out clearly. They have rejected forty years of corruption and abuse and have called for an end to the dictatorship and an end to the preference for foreign actors over the interests of the Iranian people."

Source: Voice of America