Guardian Council: 300 Criminals Registered in Last Election

Hadi Tahan Nazif of the Guardian Council told a press conference that in the last elections the registered candidates included “about 300 people who had been convicted of such crimes as affray and beatings, robbery, fraud, and so on." He added that some people even registered their young children in the last elections. His comments were in relation to changes in the vetting criteria for candidates which the Guardian Council controversially announced on Wednesday, which is aimed at excluding candidates who may have been prosecuted for political crimes in the past. 

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Guardian Council releases 12 Criteria for a Candidates

The Guardian Council has released its twelve criteria for the presidential candidates for this election. In addition to the military rank condition, which will exclude Saeed Mohammad, the age restriction of 40-75, which will exclude Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi and Mohammad Gharazi, and the criminal record condition, which will exclude Mostafa Tajzadeh, the conditions also include not being affiliated with the 2009 “sedition”, meaning having shown now support for the protests during the disputed election result of that year.  

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Guardian Council Made the Wrong Decision: Former Spokesman

Former Guardian Council spokesman Nejatullah Ebrahimian said that yesterday’s communique regarding changes to criteria for Presidential candidates was a poor decision and probably unconstitutional. Ebrahimian said that “the Constitution stipulates that the Guardian Council can only examine the conditions of the presidential candidates to see if the criteria stated in the Constitution are met. But the Guardian Council cannot lay down a general rule similar to a law or regulation from which criteria can be deduced”. The Guardian Council has been locked in a six month battle with the Legislature, the Majles, to pass changes to the Presidential law, and its decision to go ahead with the changes without legislation is controversial. 

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Guardian Council Changes Presidential Law

The Guardian Council, which vets the candidates, has notified the Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for managing the election, that it has added new conditions for candidates this election. This includes that candidates will have to be between the ages of 40 and 75, a ruling that will exclude candidate Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi. A second condition is that candidates cannot have a criminal history, which will exclude several potential candidates, such as Reformist Mostafa Tajzadeh, and two female candidates, Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani and Shahindokht Molaverdi. The Guardian Council had been trying to change the Presidential law for more than six months but has been blocked by the Parliament. 

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Guardian Council: Women Can Run for President

Spokesman for the Guardian Council, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, stated that women are permitted according to the law to run for President, and that they were subject to the same vetting of candidates as men. However, Kadkhodaei’s comments were ambiguous, because he only said that women were allowed to register to run for President. While this implies a woman can become President, he stopped short of explicitly saying so. 

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Jahangiri: Rejecting Candidates for Political Reasons Decreases Voter Turnout

First Vice President and rumoured candidate Eshaq Jahangiri told a meeting of governors and village leaders that they should not reject nominations from candidates for political reasons, as it “reduces the people’s choices and their motivation [to participate] in the elections”. Although speaking in the context of the local council elections, Jahangiri’s comments could also be interpreted as alluding to the Presidential election, which will take place on the same day. Jahangiri also spruiked his administration’s investment in rural economic programs, and the importance of village life to Iran, as one third of Iranians live in villages. 

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Hajjarian: Tajzadeh will be Disqualified

Reformist activist Saeed Hajjarian told Donya-e-Eqtesad that it is likely that Reformist candidate Mostafa Tajzadeh would be disqualified by the Guardian Council.  However, Hajjarian added that Tajzadeh has had the opportunity to present his plans for reforming Iran, and this would give him the opportunity to organise a political party around this program after the election. Tajzadeh, who announced his candidacy on Sunday, was imprisoned for seven years after the 2009 election protests, adding to the controversy around his candidacy. 

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“Ahmandinejad Doesn’t Want to be Approved as a Candidate”

Political analyst Naser Imani believes that Ahmadinejad is not seeking to be approved for election, and he is instead lobbying for future leadership beyond the election. Imani noted that “any candidate who wants to be confirmed has been hiding their radical positions for at least four or five months, but Ahmadinejad does not want to be President and wants the Guardian Council to disqualify him, so he can take an even tougher stance”. Instead, Imani said, Ahmadinejad is creating an opposition to the government in Iran.

Read more on Tasnim.

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Parliament rejects President Law

In the latest iteration of the attempts to change the Presidential Law, the Parliament has again rejected the amendments, specifically the condition that would restrict Presidential candidates to be between the ages of 40-75. The law was in part interpreted as being aimed at preventing Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, 38, from running in this Presidential election, and its rejection by the parliament was followed by speech by Azari Jahromi in which he commented on the election for the first time. The Parliament also rejected a condition which would attempt to define the Constitutional concept of “statesman (rajol-e siasi)”, which the Parliament rejected as not suitable for Common Law. The second condition is sensitive as the term has historically been interpreted as excluding women from running for president, an issue now in dispute. The law has led to a significant struggle between the Parliament and the Guardian Council which forced the intervention of the Expediency Council earlier this week. In a sign that the Guardian Council is unhappy with the result, a letter sent by dissenting members of Parliament to Ayatollah Janati was published, stating that since the Guardian Council vets candidates for election, they should have a greater role in deciding on the law.

Read the report on the Parliament on Entekhab
Watch Azari Jahromi’s comments on the election at Donya-ye Eqtesad
Read the letter to Ayatollah Janati at Khabaronline

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Expediency Council returns Presidential Law to Guardian Council

The Expediency Council, which mediates disputes on law making between the Parliament and Guardian Council, met on Saturday to review the changes made by the Guardian Council on amendments to the Presidential Law which had failed to pass the Parliament last week. The Expediency Council identified two problems with the proposed changes which they deemed incompatible with the laws of the country, and returned the proposed changes to the Guardian Council for another revision. The amendments would limit presidential candidates to be between the ages of 40 and 70, and at this stage are unlikely to pass in time to affect this year’s election.

Read more on ISNA

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