This article was last updated on May 25, 2022
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As Election Day draws nearer
Iran’s reformists have thrown their full weight behind the candidacy of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani for the upcoming presidential elections in June.
In recent months, various political figures from across the board, in particular the reformist camp, had been attempting to convince Hashemi Rafsanjani and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami to run in the next presidential elections, which is scheduled to be held on 14 June. On Saturday and during the final hours of registration, Rafsanjani, who is currently the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, registered as a candidate and in doing so ended speculations as to who would be the reformists’ main man for the June vote.
Soon after Rafsanjani’s game-changing decision, Iran’s largest reformist parties declared their full support for his bid to return to the presidency.
On Monday, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) as well as the Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organisation (MIRO), two prominent pro-reform parties, released separate statements endorsing Hashemi Rafsanjani’s candidacy. Following the widely contested 2009 presidential election, many of the two groups’ members were arrested, paraded in televised show trials and sentenced to lengthy jail terms.
IIPF called the upcoming election a “historic” opportunity for change in the country, and vowed to provide its “unyielding” support to the 79-year-old.
In an interview with Norooz, Hamidreza Jalaeipour, a Tehran University professor and a senior figure in the IIPF, referred to Hashemi Rafsanjani’s decision as a “bold” move. “The reformist consensus was not reached easily,” he added.
In its statement, MIRO said the general public’s mistrust towards the ruling establishment had reached “its apogee” and that the forthcoming elections were “one of the last” hopes for saving the country from its current state of decline. It said that Hashemi Rafsanjani was one of the last individuals capable of delivering the country from its current political quagmire.
The organisation also warned Iran’s security and military bodies not to intervene in the June election and to draw lessons from the 2009 unrest.
While Rafsanjani’s bid for the presidency has been met with praise from the reformists, it has drawn much criticism from the conservative camp.
On Wednesday, Member of Parliament Javad Karimi Sadoughi told the semi-official Fars news agency that close to a hundred lawmakers had signed a letter calling on the Guardian Council to disqualify Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad ally Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei from the race.
Without actually naming Hashemi Rafsanjani, the letter urged the Guardian Council, which vets potential candidates, to bar the senior figure from entering the presidential race because of his role in the “sedition,” as well as his “old age.”
“Sedition,” is the Iranian regime’s epithet for the opposition Green Movement that was born out of the 2009 presidential election.
Similar anti-Rafsanjani sentiments were also voiced by Ali Akbar Velayati, another candidate in the upcoming election. Velayati criticised Rafsanjani for having abandoned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei following the 2009 protests. “He did not take the position he should have taken. He abandoned the leader and did not follow him,” said the former Foreign Minister.
“We have decided not to allow those who have an angle with the leader to gain control over the country’s affairs,” he continued.
Other presidential hopefuls such as Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, Alireza Zakani and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf (Tehran mayor) have also questioned Rafsanjani’s conduct in recent years.
“A conservative unity before the [Rafsanjani] current is of great importance,” Haddad-Adel stressed. “The conservatives must act wisely vis-à-vis Hashemi Rafsanjani.”
Ever since the 2009 unrest, Rafsanjani has been accused by many hardliners of supporting the opposition Green Movement. During a Friday prayers sermon coinciding with the protests, he called for national reconciliation and an end to the brutal crackdown on the opposition.
The latest petition signed also criticised Rafsanjani for his remarks in late April 2013 about Iran’s role in the Israel-Palestine conflict and Velayate Faqih, a principle in the constitution giving Shiite clerics the right to rule. Rafsanjani spoke of a need for Iran to “repair its foreign policy.” He went on to add, “We are not at war with Israel. Now if the Arabs go to war with them, we’ll help them.” He also said that people were the ultimate source of legitimacy for a government, no one else. “The government belongs to the people. You can’t have someone doing things the way they please while not allowing the people to protest … God gave the right to rule to the twelve infallibles alone … If a government is forced upon the people, they will not cooperate at times of danger and no dictatorial government can succeed in the world.”
Following the remarks, 150 MPs slammed the former president for his “naive thinking,” accusing him of going against the founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini by making such statements.
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