DEMYSTIFYING THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN IRAN

686 people nominated themselves as candidates for the next presidential election in Iran.   The obvious question is how could an election be organized with hundreds of candidates running for a single office? The answer is that there won’t be an election with more than 600 candidates. In a day or two, the Guardian Council will announce the names of a few, perhaps 5 or 6, final candidates who are qualified to run for the office of the president.

The role of the Guardian Council is one of the most controversial topics in the Iranian electoral politics. For the most part, the constitution envisioned a role very similar to the Supreme Court for the Guardian Council: To ensure the constitutionality of the laws and regulations and the compatibility of those laws with the teachings of Islam. On both fronts, the Council had a troubled beginning. Its members proved that they could hardly agree on any issues. Neither could they agree on what counts as being “Islamic,” nor could they show their competence in interpreting the constitution.

During Ayatollah Khomeini’s tenure as the Supreme Leader, in most cases, he disagreed with the Council’s interpretations and sided with the Parliament (majils) on legislative issues.

The Council is composed of 12 members, six experts of Islamic jurisprudence are appointed by the Supreme Leader and the majlis selects the remaining six from a list of jurists that is prepared by the Head of the Judiciary.
Historically, the Council has represented the conservative elements of the polity with a more dogmatic/literal readings of Islamic jurisprudence.

In 1992, and here is the controversy, the Council introduced a broad interpretation of its supervisory role in the elections of the majlis, the Assembly of the Experts, and the president. While the constitution does charge the Council with supervising the elections, the meaning of this supervision has been a point of serious contention between different political factions. The Council claims that its supervisory role is “approbatory,” (نظارت استصوابی) meaning that it will decide whether a candidate is qualified to run for an office or not. In most cases, the Council has tried to use its authority to disqualify candidates with whose political views it disagrees. In this case, these were mostly reformist candidates for the majlis or presidency. Others, generally from the reformist tendencies, argue that the constitution has given the Council the authority only for “evidentiary”(نظارت استنادی) or “notification” (نظارت استطلاعی) supervision. That means that the Council may not disqualify any candidate based on his (or her) political views.

The 87-year old Ayatollah Jannati is the Head of the Council
and the most vociferous advocate of the approbation supervision.

Yesterday, Akbar A’lami, a presidential candidate, said that the Council should not insist on its wisdom on vetting the presidential candidates. They cannot stand behind their own record. Bani Sadr, the first president of the republic, was impeached and is now in exile in Paris. They chair of the Council, Ayatollah Janati, calls Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the third president, one of the leaders of the sedition. The Council believes that Mohammad Khatami, the former president, was a disgrace to the republic. Ahmadinejad now is considered to be the head of deviant faction in power. Not particularly a record to be proud of.

This week, the Guardian Council will announce who will be allowed to run for the election. In Tehran a contentious guessing game is under way. We try to stay clear of speculation here.

Next time, I will try to lay out the complex landscape of political factions in Iran.