Tehran - Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani on
Friday warned against military intervention in next month's
parliamentary elections.
'It is one of the main principles of the Islamic Republic system
that the military should not interfere in any elections. There is
however a cycle which cannot be considered as natural and which could
cause major damages to the pillars of our system,' Rafsanjani said at
the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran.
The commander of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards (IRGC),
General Mohammad-Ali Jafari, caused some controversy last week after
he not only called on his forces to vote for the conservatives but
also termed it their 'divine duty.'
The IRGC is widely considered a fierce supporter of President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The move was even criticized by Hassan Khomeini who said that his
grandfather - the late supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution,
Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - was openly opposed to any
military intervention in politics.
'What we need now is preparing grounds for allowing all those with
fidelity to the Islamic Republic to run in the elections,' Rafsanjani
said.
'This also includes different (from the government) political
trends,' he added.
A special committee of the interior ministry had reportedly
disqualified more than 2,000 candidates for the March 14 elections,
including a large number of reformists.
The Guardian Council however, which is constitutionally the main
body responsible for monitoring the ideological qualification of
candidates for parliamentary and presidential elections, has
reportedly revised some the disqualifications.
Reformists close to Rafsanjani and former president Mohammad
Khatami still say that the revisions have not cleared their
candidates and that there would still be no fair and equal atmosphere
for a healthy competition.
The reformists had formed a coalition, led by Rafsanjani and
Khatami, to run in the elections against factions supporting
Ahmadinejad.
But even candidates of the conservative camp are not regarded by
insiders as being fully on the president's side, especially as top
candidate Ali Larijani, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator, has
openly admitted to grave differences with Ahmadinejad over his
nuclear and economic policies.
Iran's serious economic problems have led to astronomical
inflation and some of the conservatives previously backing
Ahmadinejad are gradually distancing themselves from the president
for endangering their re-election.
There is still a possibility that the election race would include
the two moderate-reformist and conservative camps in addition to a
a separate pro-Ahmadinejad wing.
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