Azerbaijan, Baku. 17 March / corr. Trend A. Gasimova/ Domestic and foreign experts are sure that the parliamentary elections in Iran, held on 14 March, do not meet the international law and are farce. "The parliament elections held in Iran were not democratic," Ariel Koen, the American expert said.
The representatives of the conservative forces won the elections for Parliament of eighthcall- held on 14 March, Iranian news agency Fars said. According to the agency, outcome of the votes in 31 provinces of Iran shows that the supporters of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and the representatives of moderate wing of conservatives will hold over 70% of the seats in the parliament.
"As long as top level of the religious establishment screens away candidates and many non-Islamist parties are banned, the elections fall behind the international norms," Ariel Koen, the senior scientist of the Heritage Foundation (US) said to Trend .
"The current elections do not even provide honest mechanisms of settling conflict inside the ruling religious elite, as the hardliners screened out reformist supporters of the former President Khatami," the expert said. According to the expert, media in Iran is not free as the journalists and intellectuals are intimidated, jailed and persecuted. "It is high time that the international community and Iranian people should recognize this farce for whatever it is worth," the expert said.
"The refusal to register half of the candidates of reformatory wing and unequal competition in parliament elections- held in Iran, show that they can not be transparent and independent," Hussein Lajevardi, the Iranian political scientist said to Trend .
"There have not been independent elections in Iran for the last 30 years," Laveverdi, the chairman of Association of Iranian Researchers said on a telephone from Paris. The first elections in Iran were held in April 1980 and it was a referendum -whether to declare the Islamic Republic of Iran. "Approximately 18.7mln people got the right to vote, while after the elections the government announced that some 22.5mln people took part in the elections. The outcome of the elections was also falsified at that time for the victory of the former President Khatami. The citizens were told that some 21mln people have voted for Khatami, while 22.mln people had a right to vote at the time," Lajevardi said.
"The elections in Iran are a show for the world community," Alirza Nurizadeh said to Trend on a telephone. According to Nurizade, the official statistics shows that the candidature of more than half of the reformatory candidates have not been registered for the parliament elections and it indicates that the elections were not democratic.
Ali Sahariz, the Iranian political expert said to Trend that majority of the population does not have interest in the election as there are no conditions for the condut of independent elections. "Well-known reformists and independent candidates of Iran have not been registered. Those who have been registered from the moderates and reformatories are not popular among the population and they did not have enough chances and time for the propaganda," Sahariz said to Trend from Tehran. According to the expert, there is no doubt that 50% of the new parliament will be of those who protect the interests of the current government. "The reformists hope to hold at least 20% of the new parliament. If we were optimistic enough, we can say that 20% of the new parliament will be oppositional," Sahariz said.