Tehran – Iranian regime president has criticized moves by a powerful committee to exclude thousands of candidates, mostly from the rival faction, from next month’s parliamentary election, saying that the decision could undermine the vote’s legitimacy, according to an AFP report.
Voters’ apathy has dominated Iranian people since the 2009 elections where millions of people came to the streets condemning the sham elections. Many people, including the young female Art student Neda Aqh Soltan, were killed, and thousands were arrested, some tortured to death and many still behind bars.
As the regime infighting has picked up momentum since the nuclear agreement, Rouhani openly questioned the actions of the Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated panel that vets all prospective lawmakers, after it said Monday that 60 percent of 12,000 election hopefuls had been excluded.
The so called reformists, largely sidelined from Iranian politics since the disputed 2009 re-election of hardline conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, bore the brunt of the vetting, with just one percent of its hopefuls winning approval.
Speaking in Tehran, Rouhani warned of a repeated uprisings by the people if the same situation was to recur when he suggested the public would see through steps that could amount to favouritism, saying it would dent the ballot’s competitiveness.
“It is called the House of the Nation, not the house of one faction,” he told an audience of provincial governors, implying that not only conservatives should contest the election for seats in parliament.
“If there is one faction and the other is not there, they don’t need the February 26 elections, they go to the parliament,” Rouhani said, laughing but then scorning such a prospect.
“No official without the vote of the people would be legitimate. Executors and observers should pay attention that the law is respected.”
Rouhani’s intervention came after the Guardian Council said only 40 percent of all candidates had been deemed eligible.