KHATAMI EXPECTED TO REPLACING HIMSELF
TEHRAN 17 May (IPS) The candidates approved Wednesday by the 12 members, leader-appointed Council of Guardians (CG) are not likely to give the next Iranian presidential elections the same enthusiasm and vibration as seen in the last one, where the outgoing President Mohammad Khatami was elected with more than 20 millions of votes.
Except Hojjatoleslam Khatami and two others, the remaining candidates wetted by the CG are conservatives, with three of them belonging to the hard-line League of Islamic Coalition.
"Except Mr. Khatami, the nine others are there for decoration", commented Mr. Abolhasan Banisadr, the Islamic Iran first elected president who was ousted by his mentor, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
By putting side-by-side Khatami and former Intelligence Minister Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian, considered as the mastermind behind the assassination of more than 100 dissidents both inside and outside Iran, the Guardians in fact downgraded the position of the President in the Islamic regime.
"With the results being a foregone conclusion, the elections are
expected to generate no public enthusiasm", one commentator said from
Tehran, adding that Mr. the turn out for Khatami would not be as high as it was
in the last polling.
Both Mr. Mohammad Khalaji, a analyst of Iranian affairs based in
Paris and Ms. Mouna Na’im, the Franco-Lebanese specialist of Middle
Eastern affairs in the influential French dialy "Le Monde"
agrees however that it depends to Mr. Khatami whether people would come to the
ballots in mass, or not.
"If, during the campaign period, Mr. Khatami announces new projects and define clearly his lines with the conservatives, he might attract the attention of the young voters, if not, one has to expect a very low turn out", said Mr. Khalaji, a former journalist with "Entekhab" (Choice), close to the conservatives.
"Mr. Khatami has but the power of words and speeches for himself", noted Ms. Na’im in an article about the Iranian elections.
But Mr. Banisadr doubted, observing that since like all other official candidates, Mr. Khatami had also pledged allegiance to the leader, there is no reason he challenging the conservatives.
In a departure from the past, the Guardians this time picked ten men, one of them a military, out of more than 800 who had registered with the Interior Ministry, including 4 women.
Mrs. Farah Khosravi, the most prominent woman registered as candidate retracted Tuesday, after the Council had rejected all women, observing that in Islam, only men can run for such important political pots.
"But why then women are allowed to become deputies? If they can represent the people in the parliament, why not at the highest job?" she replied.
The absence of prominent pro-reform personalities like Mr. Ebrahim Asgrzadeh, one of the former students who stormed the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979, has made life easier for Mr. Khatami, as he was considered as a probable key challenger to him.
Press had earlier said that several influential pro-reform groups were lobbying for the disqualification of Asqarzadeh, thinking his running in the elections could shutter consensus among reformist groups, the official news agency IRNA commented.
Analysts said only Defence Minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani an former Labour Minister Ahmad Tavakoli could pose a harmless challenge to Mr. Khatami.
The Persian daily "Hayat-e No" (New Life) said that the MMs were contending that the Iranian law banned the involvement of military personnel in political issues.
Bellow comes a short bio of each of nine of the runners in the 8 June elections
Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian, 50, hard-line conservative, former Intelligence Minister, considered the mastermind behind the killings of Iranian dissidents, under an international warrant issued by Germany
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Hassan Ghafoori-Fard, 53, conservative, member of the League of Islamic Associations, a nuclear physicist trained in the United States, former Energy Minister, catalogued as technocrat;Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, 58, believed centrist and another technocrat. Member of the Construction Servants Party that has former President Hashemi-Rafsanjani as mentor. Former vice president and the current Head of the Physical Education Organisation.
Abdollah Jasbi, 57, conservative: A graduate of one of imperial Iran's most prestigious universities, Jasbi is chancellor of the Free Islamic Universities. He ran for president against Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani in 1993 and now runs the conservative newspaper Afarinesh ("Creation") and the weekly Farhikhtegan ("Intellectuals").
Mahmood Kashani, 59, the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Abolqasem Kashani, who backed Dr Mohammad Mosadeq in nationalising the Iranian oil industries. Formerly conservative who moved towards reformists. A jurist and a professor for 30 years at Tehran's law university and enjoys a certain notoriety in academic circles.
Mansoor Razavi, 52, another conservative technocrat: A former vice president in charge of public service, Razavi was a candidate for the Islamic right-wing in the 2000 municipal elections, which reformists swept. He serves on Tehran's city council and is close to Ayatollah Hashemi-Rafsanjani.
Shahabeddin Sadr, 41, the conservative Chairman of the Iranian Medical Association
Ali Samkhani, 45, close to the conservative and to the leader.
Ahmad Tavakoli, 50, pro-conservative, former Labour minister, ran against Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani in 1993 and beat him in the populous northwestern province of Kurdistan. Tavakoli, who has spent recent years in Britain where he received a doctorate in economics, has spared no effort to criticise Khatami's economic policies. ENDS ELECTIONS CANDIDATES 17501