MEHDI KARRUBI ELECTED AS NEW MAJLES COMPROMISE SPEAKER
By Safa Haeri
PARIS 30TH May (ISP) As expected, Hojjatoleslam Medhi Karrubi, 63, was elected Tuesday as the interim Speaker of the sixth Majles (parliament) with 186 votes and 63 abstentions out of 251 present MPs who also made history as they elected for the first time a woman to the presiding Board of the 290-seats Assembly.
With the new Majles largely dominated by reformists who could easily elect Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Party (IIPP) or Mr. Behzad Nabavi, the Spokesman for the Second Khordad (23 May) Coalition Front (SKCF), the unopposed election of Mr. Karrubi was seen by analysts as a compromise reached between President Mohammad Khatami and Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Islamic Republic to have the legislative presided over by a "mo'ammam" (cleric) instead that a "mokkalla" (civilian).
In fact, prior to the vote taking, both Dr. Khatami, who is the younger brother of the President, Mr. Nabavi and Mr. Hasan Mar'ashi, from the "Executive of Construction Party", a brother-in-law of the defeated Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, had withdrew their candidacies for the important post of Speaker.
Speaking to reporters following his elections as the Interim Speaker of the first reformist-dominated Legislative of the Islamic Republic, Mr. Karrubi, a former Speaker, pointed out that the new Majles would "go ahead with the principles of the Islamic Revolution and the path of reform".
He described the new 290-seat parliament as "complimentary to the 1997 presidential election in which the people voted for President Khatami's reforms program".
He rejected any split between the Majma'e Rohanioun Mobarez (MRM, or the Association of Militant Clergymen, an offshoot of the Majma'e Rohannyat Mobarez, the conservative-controlled Association of Combatant Clergymen) and the Islamic Iran Participation Party (IIPP) saying ''We all are friends''.
He was answering persistent speculations that the IIPP was insisting of having a non cleric as Speaker as a sign of changing times and rupture from the past, as all the fifth precedent Majles were presided over by conservatives clerics.
Dr. Sadeq Ziba Kalam, a professor of Political Sciences at Tehran University and a prominent political analyst said though the IIPP and the Second Khordadi would prefer a younger, more dynamic and progressive personality closer to theirs and Mr. Khatami's ideals and political views, yet they realised that under present circumstances and conditions, Mr. Karrubi is the only one who can also be accepted to the conservatives.
"However, the reformists insisted that the Speaker of this Majles they dominate should at least be their spokesman and defend their political platform, something that did not pleased Mr. Karrubi nor those who supports him, hence his observation that the Speaker "was not a spokesman, but one of the regime's most important personality who sits at the National Security Council and participates at important decision making meetings", he added.
In fact, if compared to his predecessor Hojjatoleslam Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri or some other leading conservatives, Mr. Karrubi looks a progressive cleric, but put against Mr. Khatami, to the imprisoned Hojjatoleslam Abdollah Nuri, the former Interior Minister and Publisher of the banned "Khordad" daily Hojjatoleslam Mohsen Kadivar, who is also in prison, he is a traditionalist.
On the thorny question of co-operation between the Expediency Council and the conservatives-controlled Council of the Guardians with the reformist-dominated Majles, Mr. Karrubi hoped that the "unpleasant events" that marked the Majles election, "events that were bitter for all, be forget".
He was referring to the Guardians unexplained cancellation of electoral results in several constituencies and above all the three months-long manipulations of the results for the Capital in order to place Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani among the 30 elected candidates, making a mockery of the Tehrani voters who had dealt a most humiliating blow to the former president by not electing him.
The massive, shameful rigging in favour of the Chairman of the Expediency Council badly discredited the Guardians who, under heavy pressure from the public opinion, turned to the leader who, in turn, ordered them to validate the results.
Facing mounting threats and warning from the students in the one hand and becoming certain that he would never be elected as Speaker, Mr. Rafsanjani announced his resignation from the Majles seat the Council of Guardians had illegally provided him.
Considering the fact that the reformists have listed the abolition of several unpopular laws the last Majles had hastily approved, chief among them a new press law that limits severely the already limited press freedom or the one, initiated though by the Expediency Council forbidding legislators from investigating or examining all the administrations that are under the control of the leader, analysts forecasts head on clashes between the new Majles with the Council of Guardians, the body that must make sure that all laws approved by the Majles are in full conformity with Islamic Shari'a.
In case the two bodies could not reach understanding or compromise, the difference would have to go to the Expediency Council for final arbitration.
"This is here where in his capacity as the Chairman of Expediency Council, the vindictive Rafsanjani can have the reformist bite the earth", one analyst observed.
Asked whether the temporary presiding board elected to Majles on Tuesday will remain unchanged as the permanent presiding board, he reminded that experience has showed that it remains unchanged, and in case of possible change, it will be very few.
The temporary board is in charge of running the current affairs of the parliament and it's sessions until the credentials of two thirds of the deputies are confirmed and the permanent Board is elected.
In his address to the audience as the new interim Speaker, Mr. Karrubi called for a Majlis-government co-operation for the sake of solving "people's problems", as recommended by both the leader and the president in theiraddress to the new Majles that opened Saturday.
Mr. Majid Ansari, the leader of the reformist minority fraction in the last Majles and Mr. Abolqassem Sarhadizadeh, both deputies from Tehran belonging to the SKCF, were elected as the first and second temporary vice-speakers.
Ms Soheila Jelodarzadeh, the Spokeswoman for the Islamic Labour Party (ILP), a SKCF member, Mr. Nasser Khaleqi, Mr. Mohammad Qomi, Mr. Ali Shakouri-Rad, Mr. Esmail Jabbarzadeh and Jalal Jalalizadeh were elected as the interim secretaries.
Mr. Karrubi said election of a woman to the presiding board is an auspicious event adding that it indicated the insight of the Majlis.
"The appointment of Ms Jelodarzadeh, a textile engineer by profession, who secured 150 votes out of a total of 252 and became the first woman elected to a Majles presiding Board can pave the way for more active participation of women in parliament, particularly as a lever for the approval of more laws that could further raise their status", the official news agency IRNA commented.
A pioneer of the Islamic movement, Mr. Karrubi was a pupil of both Grand Ayatollahs Ruhollah Khomeini and Hosseinali Montazeri.
He had been arrested several times and spent over four years in prison before the victory of the Islamic revolution of 1979.
A member of the executive Board of the conservative-based Majma-e Rohanioun-e Mobarez (Association of Combatant Clergymen), he joined Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Kho'einiha and some other reform seeking clerics to form the AMC, backing Mr. Khatami and the reform process.
Elected MP in the first, second and third Majles to which he became Speaker, Hojatoleslam Karrubi founded and directed the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee in Tehran in 1979 and was appointed as Chairman of the Martyrs Foundation from 1980-1993
He holds a BA in divinity and philosophy from Tehran University and has completed seminary studies up to the level of "ijtihad", or a learned person in Islamic jurisprudence. ENDS KARRUBI SPEAKER 30500