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Iran: how to rig
an election
By JAMAL
KANJ
May 23, 2013
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=353841 THE election
landscape in Iran is becoming increasingly clear. According to state-run Press
TV, a whopping 686 candidates registered to run in the presidential poll.
However, only eight men remain on the ballot for the first round on June 14
after candidates were vetted by the Guardian Council, which consists of 12
members - half of whom were appointed by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei.
Most are
seen as loyalists to Khamenei, while those rejected included former president
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a close aide to outgoing
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Testing the
waters before the Guardian Council's decision, Iran's national deputy police
commander Esmael Moghaddam sounded a warning last week in the Shargh newspaper
for Mashaei to stop challenging the Supreme Leader by claiming to take orders
from a higher authority - namely Al Mahdi, the 12th Shi'ite Imam.
There was
also an editorial by Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the state-run newspaper
Kayhan and an appointee of Khamenei, declaring the "Ahmadinejad government
is over" and predicting "Rafsanjani will undoubtedly face
defeat".
These were
the first indications that the current president's candidate could be purged
and a clear sign of how election cards would be stacked to defeat Rafsanjani.
Pundits in
the West have argued for years that the method of choosing candidates in Iran's
election is the least democratic.
It is far
from being a representation of plural democracy, but neither is the filtered
democratic process in the West - where backdoor dealings, not a popular vote,
determine which party's candidate wins a general election.
To the
chagrin of the West, the final candidates in Iran might quarrel over many
issues, but they all support Iran's right to develop a "peaceful"
nuclear programme.
Other than
the new president forming a new negotiating team, there will be little change
at the negotiation table once Ahmadinejad is replaced.
Some might
take a more pragmatic approach in dealing with world powers, while others are
poised to take a more assertive position. Among the candidates still in the
race is Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who said in an interview with
the Financial Times that "Western powers will be forced to make
compromises only when they are confronted with fierce resistance".
In past
Iranian elections, voters have been more inclined to opt for the nominee who
registers lowest on the corruption barometer and has the highest levels of
nationalistic demagoguery. Taking a hardline position with the 5+1, the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, would likely improve
the presidential candidate's chances of winning votes.
The irony,
which many have forgotten, is that more than five decades ago some of the 5+1
countries introduced nuclear military technology to the Middle East.
France built
Israel's nuclear reactor in the late 1950s and Britain provided the heavy water
to start up the plant in 1959.
The highly
enriched uranium to make Israel's first nuclear bomb was purportedly stolen
from the US Navy in the mid-1960s.
The West's
inability to reach an agreement with Iran today can't be separated from its
failure in dealing with the crisis in Syria or its submissiveness to Israel
when it comes to Palestine.
To succeed,
the West must first stop viewing the Middle East through an Israeli prism.
Next, it should take bold steps to rectify past sins by promoting a
nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
Otherwise,
and as we have learnt from the Iraq experience, Iran will not be the last of
the problems.
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