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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2008, pages 60-61 Waging Peace Iran’s Upcoming Elections
THE WOODROW WILSON Center in Washington, DC held a Jan. 25 forum to discuss “Iran’s 2008 Parliamentary Elections: Slogans and Stakes.” Featured speaker was Farideh Farhi, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an independent researcher who often writes about Iranian politics. Even approaching the 30th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Republic, its election processes are an enigma to many—including Iranians who emigrated prior to the 1979 Revolution. Iran’s resources and its population of over 70 million are mobilized approximately once a year to handle the number and variety of elections in the country, Farhi explained. While there have been many attempts to synch parliamentary or majlis elections with Iran’s presidential elections by shortening terms, the Constitution specifies four-year terms for both. The Guardian Council (GC) is the governing body responsible for interpreting the Constitution, and Farhi explained that it has “proven to be a stickler to this law.” Thus the frequent elections continue, with elections for the 290-seat majlis scheduled for March 14. The Ministry of the Interior runs the elections, which are supervised by the GC. The latter—consisting of six Islamic jurists selected by Iran’s Supreme Leader, and six jurists of other specializations selected by the majlis from a set of nominees given by the Head of Judicial Power (who is also appointed by the Supreme Leader)—possesses the critical authority to approve or disqualify candidates. In the 2004 elections, Farhi said, some 8,000 to 8,200 candidates ran for the 290 majlis seats. To try to narrow the gap between the number of candidates and available seats, she explained, reforms were passed including that candidates must now be at least 30 years old and no older than 75, and hold at least a master’s degree (each previous four-year parliamentary term counts as one degree). Despite these new restrictions, however, candidate applications are still high, Farhi said, with a net reduction of only about 1,000 or 12 percent, bringing the total number of 2008 candidates to approximately 7,200. Even if the disqualification rate reached 60 percent, the scholar noted, there still would be 10 candidates for each available seat. Approximately 50 percent of the population votes in the majlis elections. In Farhi’s opinion, many candidates run for non-political reasons, such as financial and social advantages, because they can keep all unused campaign donations. This year’s good showing of centrist and reformist candidates, Farhi said, demonstrates a rejection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic policies, which have caused inflation and elicited charges of incompetence. She also believes that this can be taken as an indicator for the 2009 presidental election, in which she predicted Ahmadinejad will face “serious challenges.” There are three main slogans that will dominate the March majlis campaigns, Farhi observed, and each makes sense against the backdrop of Ahmadinejad’s presidency: moderation; internal economic management; and an enhancement of the stature of the majlis. This reflects the ongoing struggle within the Islamic Republic to determine how to run the country based on a symbiotic relationship between religion and economics. So far, Farhi observed, the conservatives have been able to present themselves as successful in Iranian foreign policy by asserting that a Reformist foreign policy would readily hand over the Islamic Republic to the West. —Nina Hamedani |
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