Revocation of the parliamentary candidates’ mandate was discussed in the parliament

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Category: Special

Published on Thursday, 12 January 2012 17:06

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Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani condemned revocation of mandates of the deputies in connection with participation in the next parliamentary elections. It is not right to revoke the present deputies’ mandate by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Execution Council, he told during the general meeting of the parliament on January 11. Mandate of the unknown candidates should be examined and given a decision for them, Larijani added. Casting doubt on competence of a person, who has been a parliamentary deputy for 4 years, is senseless.

Execution Councilors are the proxies appointed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs by the Assembly of Experts. They study competence of the candidates at primary stage. Mandate of some of the candidates are revoked at this stage and they can’t pass to next stage. 

To mention, according to the news spread yesterday, the mandates of more than 30 parliamentary deputies, as well as Ali Motahhari, Hamidreza Katoziyan, Ali Abbaspour, Fatima Acirlu and other opposition candidates.

Besides the speaker, many deputies have also protested against revocation of candidacy of the present deputies. The opposition deputies are majority among the protested deputies.

The reason of revocation of mandates of the candidates isn’t stated officially. But according to the information given by the candidates, the Executive Council has revoked the mandates being based on the articles of the election law of “faith and trust in Islam, confidence in Constitution and Guardianship of the Jurist”. And it means that as if the present deputies don’t trust in Islam and don’t recognize Constitution and Guardianship of the Jurist.

The issue of revocation of mandates of the candidates in the elections has always been on the agenda during last 30 years. The Assembly of Experts revokes mandates under explanation of “on account of its advice”. But actually there is not such an article in the Iranian legislation. Even the author of the Iranian constitution Ayatollah Husseinali Montazeri has told once and again that the Shurayi Nigahban (Assembly of Experts) doesn’t mean “on account of its advice” (Nazarati Istisvabi) in the Iranian Constitution. This assembly was incorporated into a law for a purpose just to control upon the elections and prevent joining to the elections the men not trusting in Islam. Under the theory of “Nazarati Istisvabi” the Assembly of Experts can revoke mandate of any candidate in every elections and not to state its reason. The Assembly of Experts owned such privilege during the 5th parliament. Before it, the Asembly of Experts had borne responsibility for revocation of mandate and had to report the reasons of revocation of mandate. During the terms of Khatami 9 years ago, the Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared a bill and presented it to the parliament for a purpose of change in the election law. Under that bill the Assembly of Experts couldn’t revoke mandate of anybody without a paper from Court, Ettelaat (Ministry of Information and Security) and police. But the bill met serious protests of the conservatives and wasn’t adopted. So, the left-wing forces, opposition and the people criticizing the Islamic Republic can never join the elections in Iran.

The Assembly of Experts showed its stricter face during the 7th parliamentary elections and revoked mandates of 800 men from 1700 candidates in Tehran. Mandates of more than half of the parliamentary deputies of that period were revoked as well. The deputies were holding the protest action in the parliament. They hadn’t left the parliament during a month. But after understanding failure they sent in their resignation and wrote to Khamenei a letter full of criticism. Khatami administration gave a decision to delay the elections, but the government forced to conduct the elections under direct order of the Supreme Religious Leader. The newspapers of that period were charged to not publish the letter of the deputies. Even the newspapers Sharg and Yasino were closed because of publishing that letter.

So, it seems the regime in Iran takes every means to protect its existence. While it continues such manner, it will never be possible to change this power with democratic ways or to conduct the reforms. But other means aren’t of high level interest in the Iranian society yet. 

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