Financial corruption in the Guardian Council; middlemen demand billions of dollars to certify candidates
Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of parliament, announced that intermediaries received billions of dollars in money to verify the qualifications of candidates for the 11th term of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Mr. Sadeghi wrote in a Twitter message on Monday, February 27: "During this election cycle, the middlemen have increased the qualification verification rate, sometimes by up to four billion tomans; what will happen to this 11th parliament!!"
This is not the first time that Mr. Sadeghi has raised the issue of receiving bribes to certify the qualifications of representatives. Last summer, he also posted a message on Twitter to Ahmad Jannati, the secretary of the Guardian Council, saying that corruption had also infiltrated the apparatus under his management and that individuals affiliated with the Guardian Council had asked for money from the candidates to certify the qualifications of parliamentary candidates.
Although Mr. Sadeghi's claim was initially met with a complaint from the Guardian Council, the MP brought his witnesses to the hearing of the charges at the meeting of the Board of Oversight of the Conduct of Representatives, and they said in the meeting that individuals requested amounts ranging from 100 million tomans to 2 billion tomans to confirm their qualifications.
A report published by some domestic Iranian media last July stated that, according to one witness, he had been invited to the Seyyed Azizollah Mosque in Tehran's bazaar to negotiate about confirming his qualifications.
The issue of corruption among election observers and the demand for money to certify candidates comes as two members of the Guardian Council appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei, Mohammad Yazdi and Sadegh Larijani, accused each other of corruption this summer.
The United States has repeatedly condemned institutionalized financial corruption and the plundering of Iran's God-given assets by the regime's affiliates, and has identified them as among the main causes of Iran's economic and financial problems. Not long ago, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted about the Islamic Republic's officials that they were involved in corruption instead of helping the people.
The US State Department also referred to the wealth of Iran's rulers and the corruption of the Islamic Republic's government apparatus in a Twitter message on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day.
The 11th parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held on March 2nd of this year. Reports indicate widespread disqualification of candidates from some political groups.
Source: Voice of America
