Reformists under Fire as Election Officials Reject Candidates

Iran’s Guardian Council, which is responsible for selecting and approving candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections in late February, has disqualified the majority of the reformist-leaning candidates, a member of the policy committee for reformists has said.

According to Hossein Marashi, 99 percent of the country’s reformist hopefuls have been disqualified from the race, a claim that some commentators initially dismissed as exaggerated, but was confirmed by the Council’s election supervisors on January 17. Out of the initial 3,000 candidates hoping to run, only 30 successfully qualified.

The disqualification process was led by Ahmad Jannati, the Leader of the Guardian Council who, along with his allies, took steps to stamp out candidates with “corrupt intentions” — a term coined by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. “Some people create election lists with corrupt intentions,” Khamenei said in a meeting with Friday prayer imams on January 4. "This isn’t done with sincerity, or out of love for the revolution."

Jannati said he fully understood the concerns of the supreme leader and had taken steps to “tackle the plot” launched by so-called “seditionists” — the hardliners’ byword for Green Movement activists — to gain power across parliament and in the Assembly of Experts, which oversees the work of the supreme leader and will one day determine his successor. Elections for both are due to take place at the end of February.

Former president Mohammad Khatami is leading the reformists’ electoral campaign. As part of this, the group of moderate politicians and campaigners established an independent system to resolve internal disputes as best and as quickly as possible. Prior to the announcement about disqualification, the committee called on potential reformists to come forward to register, aiming to pull in the widest group of reformists possible. 

As part of their electoral strategy, reformists published photographs of Hassan Rouhani, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Hassan Khomeini — the grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who is running as a candidate for the Assembly of Experts — on election campaign material, hoping to garner support among voters by linking lesser-known candidates to the most prominent figures within the reformist camp. Hardliners, including the supreme leader, voiced anger at the move, and at Etela'at newspaper’s attempt to circumvent the current media ban on publishing photographs of and stories about Mohammad Khatami. Despite their attempts to publicize the influential reformist, the ban continued and the paper was unable to use his image as part of its campaign coverage.

Speaking to clerics in Qom several days after his speech to imams, on January 9, the Supreme Leader stressed the importance of following the correct and pre-approved procedure for preparing candidate lists for elections.

"When officials bring these lists to me, I often don’t know many of the people on them, but I trust the people who have selected the candidates,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “If I see that they’re religious and revolutionary people, I trust them. But if I see that they’re the kind of people who don’t care about the revolution, religion or the independence and sovereignty of the country, or that they think in line with the United States and its allies, I won’t trust them. That’s the right thing to do."

In previous election campaigns, the supreme leader has not tended to be so forthcoming on his opinions of candidates. So the fact that he has been outspoken this time has been seen by many commentators as a sign of his irritation, as well as a signal that he and other hardliners will present a serious front against reformist efforts to secure power — a battle that has clearly already begun.

The registration process is not yet over. Candidates will continue to campaign over the coming weeks, but the Guardian Council will come to a decision on final candidates just before the election. Regardless, the recent disqualifications represent a serious setback for reformists. And, as their election efforts and activities increase, so will tactics against them, further threatening any real chance of reformist success.

"Some people want to create a majority — or a noisy and active minority — with a view to disrupting parliament,” Ahmad Jannati told Friday Prayer leaders on January 4, revealing the extent of his opposition to reformist influence. The disqualifications on January 17 were just the first step. 

In the coming days, the Guardian Council will retreat slightly, sitting back and letting Iran’s electoral process take shape. But no one can argue that this move has done the damage intended. Regardless of the way that President Rouhani’s moderate administration chooses to respond to the attacks, it is unlikely to be able to recover entirely. 

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