Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the chairmen of the Guardian Council in charge of vetting the candidates for the parliamentary and presidential elections in Iran, said during his sermons delivered at Friday Prayer in Tehran that the “deviationist group,” an insulting expression used by the conservatives in defining Ahmadinejad supporters, has started to spend large sums of money to buy votes for next year’s parliamentary elections.
“The Deviationist Group’s action (spending money to buy votes) is not hidden from anyone. In due time and if necessary, people will take care of this group” [Fars News Agency, 13 May].
The accusation, coming from the chairman of the body in charge of selecting “qualified” candidates for Majlis, coupled with the thinly-veiled threat that the conservatives will “take care of” the group in due time, could be the first major move by the conservatives to disqualify candidates who support Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie.
8 comments:
A dinosaur threatening mammals. We know who will win.
Very interesting act of desperation. All I can say, Go Mahmoud Go!
Janati thteratens the deviations
very very import news.
I am very afraid.
Except the "dinosaur" can disqualify all "mammals" from running in the upcoming elections! The dinosaur in question here will have "legal" authority to select the list of "legitimate" candidates for the 2012 parliamentary elections, and the 2013 presidential elections. And that's precisely how dinosaurs have kept eliminating a variety of opposition groups throughput these years.
If indeed it is the Rahbar's intention to put an end to the Ahmadinejad faction by disqualifying their candidates - which I doubt - then I doubt that the President would "go quietly into the night".
Nader,
The dinosaur permitted Ahmadinejad to run, and see where they are now.
They also let Khatami to run, and you cannot deny that change and opening in Iranian society, which in fact led to Ahmadinejad, and which continues to this day, started with Khatami.
So I would say the dinosaur has a pretty bad track record of saving his own kind. Iranian society is on an evolutionary path to political and social growth. Maybe in the next elections they will put one of their kind in Pastor. But that will be just a small bump on the road.
Where is your hope and optimism?
Unknown Unknowns,
Agreed. Ahmadinejad/Mashie & Co. are not the type of Khatami, Mousavi/Karrubi or Rafsanjani for that matter. They are indeed not expected to go quietly into the night. Important days ahead for the future of the Islamic Republic (would it be transformed into a Second Republic or would it defy change and remain as before), and also interesting days for the students of Iranian politics.
Paul,
I am an old-school optimist, believing things will change, and sooner than expected. The concern is the timing of all this. The country consumed by a series of continuous power struggle, Mousavi in '09 and Ahmadinejad in '11, with the likelihood of more intense struggles during '12 and '13 elections, is likely to miss many opportunities open to it by the unfolding and historic events in its neighborhood.
But again four years might not be a long period if the outcome in 2013 would be serious curtailment of clerical hold on power and moves toward a more secular and professional form of government.
I have been saying for years that Ahmadinejad is good for Iranians who want a Democracy. For years people have been labeling me as a Hezbollahi for defending Ahmadinejad.
Whilst they just shouted slogans and critisized everything including our scientific and Economic acheivements, and whilst they had no idea what they wanted and more importantly how they were going to acheive it, we have had Ahmadinejad, a person with power and will to actually change things. Khatami and co and in fact all reformists in Iran have no power to get anything done, the only type of people that can are Ahmadinejad and Mashaei that will not be silenced.
Zizek's analysis on the fall of communism actually resembles this well. From "Living in the end Times" introduction XI.
"..it is worth noting that the resistance to communism in eatern europe in fact took three successive forms: (1) the "revisionist" Marxist critique of really-existing socialisms ("this is not true socialism, we want a return to the authentic vision of socialism as a free society") - here one might slyly remark that the same process went on in early modern period in Europe, where secular opposition to the hegemonic rule of religion first had to express itself in the guise of religious heresay; (2) the demand for an autonomous space of civil society freed from the constraints of party-state control (this was the official position of solidarity during the first years of its existence - its message to the communist party was: "we do not want power, we just want a free space outside your control where we can engage in critical reflection on what goes on in society"): (3) finally, the open struggle for power: "we do want full democratically legitimized power; which means it's time for you to go."
Now how well does this resemble what is going on today?
(1) Ahmadinejad and Mashaei's comments on religion want to break the hegemonic role of clerics in religion and by extension politics.
(2)Ahmadinejad's insitance on appointing ministers without the aproval of Khamenei and even the Majlis.
(3)It hasn't happened yet but at the rate of how things are progessing this seems to be the only solution, where Ahmadinejad or Mashaei strip Khamenei of his powers.
Post a Comment