...

Expert: Iran to have big problems if reformists abandon presidential elections

Iran Materials 3 May 2013 15:37 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, May 3 /Trend T. Jafarov/

The most important problem that Iran is currently facing is that if the reformist groups do not take part in the elections, people will not be encouraged to attend in large scale, journalist, historian and director of Deutsche Welle Persian News department, Jamshid Farooqui told Trend.

Farooqui was commenting on the problems that Iran is facing prior to the upcoming presidential elections in the country.

It has been announced that Iran will hold the 11th presidential election on June 14, 2013.

The voters will select the successor of the current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is not able to participate in the elections for the third term according to the country's constitutional laws.

The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term in a national election and the Guardian Council vets the candidates for qualifications.

"The issue of elections in Iran has turned to a complicated one," Farooqui said. "The complication is due to political outcomes after the tenth presidential elections and clashes of the green movement with the government at that time."

After the presidential elections in May 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rivals Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi claimed large irregularities in the results. Millions of Iranians also protested against the results.

The reformists of the opposition said that there was vote fraud during Ahmadinejad's win, who won the elections with the help from IRGC and Basij Civil Forces.

Massive protests against the outcome of the election were met with fierce repressions, during which security forces shot and killed dozens of people and thousands were arrested.

According to the official results Mousavi gathered 13 million votes against Ahmadinejad's 24.5 milion votes. Mousavi and Karroubi were under house arrest for several months after the elections.

Jamshid Farooqi also noted that the reformist groups have their own problems.

"How can reformists participate in the elections when their leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, are in custody?"

Among other problems, Jamshid Farooqui noted that fact that the administration of current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confronts with other sources of power, including the Leader of Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the IRGC.

"This issue has worsened the situation and has increased the problems," Farooqui said.

The tensions between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei became public in 2011, when Ahmadinejad fired country's intelligence minister in April, only to have Khamenei reinstate him. After that Ahmadinejad refused to show up for work or key cabinet meetings for 11 days.

Khamenei refused to woo the president return to office. Indeed, he even initially signaled his willingness to let Ahmadinejad resign, despite the potential political costs to the regime.

Tags:
Latest

Latest