NCRI- An unprecedented factional feuding has erupted in the run-up to the mullahs’ Majlis elections. In an attempt to dominate the next parliament, the faction affiliated to the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has disqualified the candidates of the rival camps.
On previous occasions, the Interior Ministry would approve all the candidates and it was the election watchdog Guardian Council which would disqualify the "undesirable" candidates in the next phase.
However, with the elections scheduled for March 14, the Interior Ministry said thirty-one percent of candidates were not qualified to run. In some cities more than 50 percent of candidates have been found not fit to run in the elections. In the Tehran alone, 394 candidates were eliminated from the race. The Guardian Council is expected to eliminate even more candidates in the following weeks.
The clerical regime, beset by domestic and international crisis, has no alternative but to step up internal suppression, export terrorism and fundamentalism abroad, and expedite its nuclear projects. To advance his policies, Khamenei needs more purges within his own ranks to enhance his power and that of his faction, the most brutal faction of the ruling religious fascism. This is the pattern which began with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ascendancy and continues on fast track.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the Supreme Leader’s son is trying desperately to get more commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elected to the next Majlis.
To divert some of the blame, the Interior Ministry has announced that a number of candidates had been eliminated from the race only after careful background checks by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), the State Security Forces (SSF), Prosecutor General’s Office, and the Bureau for National Statistics. In some cities, the Interior Ministry has either declared all candidates of the rival factions ineligible to run or approved only a couple of them.
At least 30 members of the current Majlis, Ahmadinejad’s own cabinet ministers and deputy ministers, and provincial governors as well as senior government officials during Mohammad Khatami’s tenure, are among those found unfit. There are also several clerics who had been Majlis deputies or previously held government posts but have now been told by the Interior Ministry that they cannot run since they were found not "committed to Islam."
"Not participating in religious processions, demonstrations and rallies, Friday prayers, and not supporting the [regime’s] nuclear program as well as shaving their beards and dressing inappropriately," were cited as the causes for disqualifying a number of candidates, the state-run media reported.
Before the Interior Ministry’s announcement, the state-run media affiliated to Khamenei’s faction, and including Supreme Leader’s mouthpiece, the daily Kayhan, described the candidates of the opposing factions as conspirators, traitors, and elements seeking to overthrow the regime. They were also called to denounce their ties to foreign powers and repent because of their past behavior.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 25, 2008