NCRI – Voting in the mullahs’ sham presidential election has begun in Iran, and all the levers of power
are in the hands of the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Even though the election is anything but free, it will have deep consequences for the future of Iran and the clerical ruling elite.
The most important event in the election happened before it began, when the Guardian Council disqualified Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was the second most powerful man in the regime for 35 years and helped Ali Khamenei to become the Supreme Leader.
By disqualifying Rafsanjani, Khamenei was trying to prevent a repeat of the mass uprising of 2009, which would present a dangerous threat to his regime. But the elimination of a powerful partner only worsened the crisis and deepened dissent dissent, undermining the fragile integrity of the regime and expediting its downfall.
Although recent sham elections have been boycotted by the people, this year’s boycott is expected to be on an unprecedented scale, and involving many forces traditionally affiliated with the regime.
Five candidates are already powerful regime figures. The sixth is Mohammad Qarazi, who is not seriously considered as the next president. Qarazi was a founder of the regime’s intelligence and repressive organs, and has been a minister since 1997.
Of the other five candidates, two are IRGC generals; one is Khamenei’s advisor; one is secretary of regime’s Supreme National Security Council and one is Khamenei’s representative in the regime’s Supreme National Security Council and Expediency Council.
The stagnancy of election is such that the the ruling mullahs have issued extreme calls for people to vote, with remarks including, ‘whoever does not participate will go to the hell’, or that participation in the election is ‘more effective than bombing the White House’.
Khamenei’s faction have already announced that ‘participation will be more the 80 percent’ and are preparing the ground for an astronomical election fraud by the Revolutionary Guards, Intelligence and Interior Ministries and the special services of Khamenei.
But the regime’s weakness and the crisis it is facing has resulted in Khamenei not being able to control the mounting disputes among his own faction, despite the mass disqualification of the candidates of other factions. As a result, on Friday four candidates from his own faction will go to the ballot box.
This means the election may go to a run-off, despite all Khamenei’s lengthy efforts to engineer the election. Hassan Rohani, the fifth candidate who is Khamenei’s representative in the Supreme National Security Council and also his appointee as a member of the Expediency Council and member of the Assembly of Experts, may enter a run-off, although less preferable to Khamenei than the other four candidates.
Rohani was a founder of Society of Combatant Clergy (composed of clerics within Khamenei’s faction); he has kept his distance from the so called reformist faction inside the regime and individuals like Mir-hossien Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
Rohani who has been regime’s nuclear negotiator for some years, recently acknowledged that he had deceived western government leaders in order to continue with the nuclear project.
In the midst of 1999 uprising, he said: “An insult to Khamenei is an insult to Iran and Islam, and to Muslims and our constitution which considers Iran to be the leader of Islamic world. These protesters must not be called revolutionary and yesterday decisive orders were given to repress any action by these groups.”
In short, whatever the result of the sham election is, the mullahs’ regime will emerge from it weaker and more fragile and its downfall will be expedited.
