Iran hardliners try to shape radical new parliament
Veteran MP disqualified from participation in parliamentary polls
The son of a cleric whose teachings helped shape the Islamic republic, Ali Motahari, 62, has for more than a decade been a member of parliament and a leading figure in the Iranian political establishment.
But even these impeccable revolutionary credentials failed to prevent his disqualification from participation in this month’s Iranian parliamentary elections. More than 90 sitting MPs, including conservatives and hundreds of reformist candidates, have been told they cannot contest the polls.
Emboldened by the public outpouring of grief for military commander Qassem Soleimani, killed in a targeted US air strike last month, hardliners see the February 21 parliamentary poll as a chance to forge a radical new assembly.
The Guardian Council, the hardline constitutional watchdog that vets prospective candidates, has questioned many candidates’ “allegiance” to Islam and the Islamic republic and, in some cases, accused them of financial fraud.
“I am worried for the future of the Islamic revolution with this approach of the Guardian Council, which will further restrict freedom of speech and people’s role in determining their destiny,” said Mr Motahhari, who has previously voiced support for reformists.
“When a member of the council told me that I had to repeat what they say, I shivered.” He quoted a promise made by his father, Morteza Motahhari, during the 1979 Islamic revolution that communists and “non-Islamic parties can enjoy freedom of speech provided they do not attribute their comments to Islam”.
In the two years since president Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear agreement — the signature achievement of Iran’s pro-reform forces — and imposed tough economic sanctions, hardliners have pushed a more radical agenda.
They have jumped on the anti-US mood in the wake of Soleimani’s death last month to block reformist candidates who they say lack the courage to stand up to Washington and foolishly agreed to the nuclear deal in the first place. “The US pressure is so terrifying and unprecedented that Iran’s radicalisation has become a natural and predictable result. The US’s role has always been detrimental to Iran’s move toward democracy,” said Saeed Laylaz, a reformist analyst.
“All political factors indicate that Iran is moving towards a unanimous, authoritarian system,” said Mohammad Atrianfar, a political activist.
While Iran’s 290-member parliament usually bows to the state’s wishes, it does in theory have the power to monitor the executive and can impeach members of the government, including centrist president Hassan Rouhani.
Iran has always operated a strict vetting system for both parliamentary and presidential polls. Candidates must be aged between 30 and 75, have a masters degree, and show loyalty to Islam and the Islamic republic. Once they have passed initial scrutiny by the ministry of interior, their applications are sent to the Guardian Council.
But so severe has the disqualification process been that hardline candidates face no serious competition from reformists for about 200 out of 290 seats, reformists said. About a third of sitting members of parliament have been disqualified from standing again. In smaller constituencies that have traditionally had a high turnout that might favour a reformist or pro-reform candidate, reformists have been disqualified.
“The qualification system is so carefully engineered,” said a reformist member of parliament who decided not to run again because he feared he wouldn’t meet the strict criteria. “In constituencies where reformists have a chance of winning, they are disqualified and wherever there is no chance of winning they have qualified.”
The disqualifications also speak to the weakness of reform movement in Iran, whose core policies include rapprochement with the west and more liberal political and social policies within the Islamic republic’s system. Reformists’ numbers have been decimated by repression. There is not a strong opposition overseas and no one is presenting a viable alternative to the Islamic republic, analysts said.
While some politicians have called for the polls to be boycotted, many want to promote the few reformist candidates there are and encourage people to vote. Still, Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, a former reformist vice-president, said there was a future for the reformist movement. “Reformists can have a louder voice when they are outside the official establishment,” he said. “And people will come back to reformists after they hear radicals’ voices every day.”
The hardliners are overplaying their hand, Mr Atrianfar said, warning that public demands for change will not disappear. “The Iranian society will force hardliners to address their calls for reforms. The guards cannot make decisions in garrisons.”
Such is the outcry over the disqualifications that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was expected to use his “absolute authority” allowed under the constitution to let some of the more prominent disqualified candidates run. However, on Wednesday Mr Khamenei showed no signs of intervening, saying the next parliament would have no place for those who were scared of speaking out against foreign enemies.
He warned against disappointing voters by claims that the elections’ results were pre-determined and called on people to vote for nationalistic reasons even if they disliked him.
For now, even as reformists recognise defeat is likely, they want the chance to compete. “In their private circles, they [hardliners] say ‘the next parliament is 100 per cent ours’. If so, at least let some competition take place,” the centrist Mr Rouhani said. “We don’t mind if the [next] parliament is going to be all yours. Bon appétit!”