29 Mar 2024
Thursday 23 May 2013 - 14:42
Story Code : 29673

Irans poll charade

Ban on candidateshighlights the frailty of the Islamic regime
By throwing his hat into the ring for Irans presidential race, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president, disrupted the supreme leaders efforts to engineer the outcome.Ayatollah Ali Khameneihas struck back. The countrys constitutional watchdog, whose criteria for approving candidates is known to shift, hasbanned the reformist-backed Mr Rafsanjanifrom running in next months poll.

It was not an easy decision and it will not pass without consequence. Mr Rafsanjani is not only a founder of the Islamic revolution and the man who had helped propel Mr Khamenei to the post of supreme leader. He also presides over the Expediency Council, one of the regimes top unelected bodies. A pragmatic politician who favours better relations with the outside world, he was thefavourite of Tehrans business community, hard hit by the economic sanctions that have resulted from Irans nuclear defiance.


Less surprising, though also contentious, was thedisqualification of Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, chief of staff to Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the outgoing president, and a man who has had atesty relationship with the clerics.

The supreme leader is consolidating his power by pushing aside anyone with sufficient credibility to challenge him. But he is also narrowing further the base of his regime and intensifying popular resentment. Rather than erase the bitter memory of the fraudulent election of 2009, in which Mr Ahmadi-Nejad was granted a second term, the regime is turning this years poll into a farce.

There is a small chance that Mr Rafsanjani could be reinstated. There are also two remaining non-fundamentalist candidates, includingHassan Rohani, a former nuclear negotiator close to Mr Rafsanjani, who could deliver a surprise in the June poll. But this election appeared designed from the start as a race between loyal contenders, withSaeed Jalili, the chief nuclear negotiator, the presumed Khamenei favourite.

Irans regime has learnt nothing from the popular revolts that have swept the Middle East during the past two years. It is compounding the humiliation of the urban middle class that rose up in 2009. Grievances, however, extend beyond the cities, as eight years of economic mismanagement and international sanctions aggravate economic hardship and threaten to spark social unrest. By tightening his grip on power, Mr Khamenei has inflicted greater damage on the fragile Islamic system that he claims to protect.

By The Financial Times



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