Hossein Tala Vets Like the Guardian Council

While Iran is still grappling with the Guardian Council’s rejection of Hashemi Rafsanjani – a founding member of the Islamic regime - to run in the June presidential election, provincial and town executive and supervisory bodies are busy quietly rejecting candidates for the upcoming elections to provincial and town councils. Three of these candidates revealed their complaints to Rooz, pointing to the absence of any reasons for their rejections of their loyalty to the constitution, Islam and the velayate faghih (rule of clerics).

A number of known reformist candidates have been rejected for what the authorities call lack of commitment to Islam, the velayate faghih and the constitution, without the presentation of any proof for such rulings. The candidates have only two days to file their protests. One such rejectee is Mohsen Hashemi, ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani’s son who ran Tehran’s metro system who told Rooz that he had filed his protest.

Another disqualified candidate, Alizadeh Tabatabai, an attorney and a former member of the Tehran municipality council told Rooz, “No documents have been presented for the assertion that I lack commitment to Islam, the velayate faghih or the constitution. I simply received a letter from the governor of Tehran informing me that my protest had been rejected.”

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Dr Vali-Allah Shojapourian, a former two-time Majlis member and university professor told Rooz that his registration was rejected on the same grounds that the Guardian Council had earlier rejected his credentials to run for a seat in parliament. According to him, “Hossein Tala is the head of the provincial/town election supervisory board who had earlier worked on the Guardian Council and now continues the same approach regarding provincial and town elections.”

Shojapourian is a member of the Jebhe Mosharekat (the reformist Iran Participation Front) and he too said that no proof or documentation about his asserted lack of commitment to the constitution or the velayate faghih was presented. He added that when his registration for the Majlis was rejected, the Guardian Council invited him and presented him with its reasons, which were exclusively related to the speeches that he had given on the floor of the Majlis criticizing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration and policies. He added that at that time Ahmadinejad enjoyed the full support and special attention and no criticism over his administration was tolerated. “Specifically, they told me that the supreme leader supported Mr. Ahmadinejad’s provincial tours while I criticized them, thus weakening the position of the leader,” Shojapourian said. “Today, even harsher criticism of Ahmadinejad is made by the very same people who rejected me, who bring up the same issues that I had raised then. They rejected me then and did it again now. In reality, my crime is that I had noticed the administration’s issues earlier than they had and so issued my warnings,” he concluded.

A few days ago, Mohammadjavad Kolivand, the head of the provincial-town election supervisory body told reporters, “We have disqualified the candidates who supported Mousavi and Karoubi,” and added that all those continued to support or echo the position of the leaders of the “sedition” as evidenced in their speeches were also disqualified. Sedition is the term Iranian officials and ruling circles use for those who protested the 2009 presidential election that returned Ahmadinejad to the presidency.

In response to Rooz’s question about his commitment to Islam, Shojapourian said, “It is ironic that for 35 years I was recognized as a religious, revolutionary and combatant person, which is how people have viewed me, and now I am announced to lack Islam! What do they intend to tell the public? Who even has the right to pass judgment on people’s beliefs, faith etc?”

Earlier, Akram Mosavarimanesh, also an MP in the sixth Majlis had told Rooz that she had been disqualified on the grounds that she lacked commitment to Islam and the velayate faghih. When Rooz asked her how she could lack these when she had been qualified to be a Majlis member in the past, she simply responded by, “This is something that you need to ask these gentlemen.”