The Majlis Departees

With the runoff Majlis elections concluded on Friday, the status of the 288 Majlis seats out of the 290 total is now settled. The two remaining seats will be decided in mid-term elections. The composition of ninth Majlis has greatly changed compared to the outgoing eight Majlis.

The ruling principlist faction of the regime succeeded in winning the majority of the four-year parliamentary seats in the absence of the largest reformist groups which have normally been their traditional rivals for the legislature. Principlists are the hardline conservative ideologues who proclaim to adhere to the original ideals of the 1979 revolution.

And so the principlist majority in the outgoing eight Majlis has now given way to the absolute majority in the incoming ninth parliament. According to the official figures, 196 incumbent Majlis representatives did not make it to the parliament. This number does not include those eight Majlis deputies who did not run in the most recent elections or those whose credentials were rejected by the vetting agencies of the Islamic republic.

The ninth Majlis will see 169 new representatives, thus relegating the majority of the chamber to new comers. Those that did not make it to the incoming assembly include a number of prominent Principlists as well as a number of reformists from the eight Majlis who gathered around a faction known as the Khate Imam (Imam’s Path). Nine women succeeded in getting into the incoming ninth Majlis.

The Principlists That Did not Make It

Asadollah Badamchian. He is a well known veteran of the central council of the Motalefe Islami (Islamic Coalition) party. He was elected to the eight Majlis from Tehran. He has been the candidate of the Jebhe Motahed Osoolgarayan (the United Front of the Principlists), a conservative outfit that staunchly supports supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei. He was an MP in the second Majlis also.

Zohre Elahian. She is the woman who the Majlis research center labeled as the most active woman representative in the eight Majlis. She too was a candidate on the United Front of the Principlists ticket.

Hossein Fadai. He was in the seventh and eight Majlises. He is also the secretary general of the Jamiate Isargarane Enghelab (the Society of Devotees of the Revolution). He is a former senior commander of the Ghods Force, the international arm of the Revolutionary Guards. His name has been implicated in the atrocities of the Kahrizak prison that was shut on orders of ayatollah Khamenei. In the eight Majlis, he was the deputy chairman of the Article 90 (of the constitution) committee. He failed to get votes to get into the incoming ninth Majlis even though he was a member of the central council of the United Front which supported him.

Hassan Ghafoorifard. He was a Tehran representative in the eight Majlis, having also served in the first and fifth Majlises. He is on the governing central council of the Islamic Coalition party and was the minister of energy in Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s first administration and minister of state in seyed Mohammad Khatami’s government. During the ninth Majlis elections, he did not appear either on the United Front of Principlists or its rival the conservative Jebhe Paydari Engleb Eslami (Resistance Front of the Islamic Revolution).

Ali Abbaspour Tehranifard. Another member of the central council of the Islamic Coalition party he has been the head of the education and research committee in the seventh and outgoing eight Majlises. He is also a member of the supreme Cultural Revolution Council. Abbaspour is Abdollah Jasbi’s brother, the former chancellor of Azad University who has been accused by Jasbi’s opponents to have lobbied for the ex-chancellor in the Majlis and other government agencies. He too did not appear on the United Front of Principlists’ list in this election.

Efat Shariati Koohbanai. She was the representative from Mashhad and Kalat in the outgoing Majlis. Prior to that she was a member of the press jury that ruled on charges against media outlets. She also used to be the advisor to Abolghasem Khazali in the Ghadir International Foundation. She was supported by the United Front in the elections for the incoming ninth Majlis.

Javad Arinmanesh. As another member of the central council of the Islamic Coalition party, he too did not make it to the incoming ninth Majlis. He represented Mashhad and Kalat in the seventh and eight Majlises. He did not make it into the ninth Majlis even though former Majlis speaker Haddad Adel publicly threw his support behind Arinmanesh during a speech in Mashhad.

Mohammad Mehdi Mofateh. He has a three term record in the Majlis – fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth – and was the chairman of the planning and budget committee. He is the son of a prominent revolutionary cleric Dr. Mofatteh who was assassinated soon after the victory of the 1979 Islamic revolution as he was entering Tehran University. That day is annually commemorated in the Islamic republic as the day of unity between the theological centers and universities.

Hossein Ebrahimi. He is the former head of the organization on mosque affairs, and a member of the central council of the conservative Jame Rohaniyate Mobarez (Combatant Clergy Association) and a representative from Birjand. The supreme leader at one time called him a “trusted” individual.  In the course of the campaign for the ninth Majlis, he was supported by the United Front.

Omidvar Rezai. As the brother of Mohsen Rezai, current the secretary of the powerful former State Expediency Council and former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, he has served in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eight Majlises representing Masjid Soleiman in all terms. He ran for the ninth Majlis from Tehran, which may explain why he lost his bid.

Outgoing Reformists

Mostafa Koakibian. He was the most controversial member of the Khate Imam faction (the Imam’s Path) in the outgoing eight Majlis and the secretary general of the Hezbe Mardomsalari (Populist Party). He was among the staunchest supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s presidential bid in the 2009 elections but after the race turned against him and the Green Movement and announced his support for the leader of the Islamic republic and the velayate faghih (rule of clerics).

Mohammad-Reza Khabaz. He is a member of the central council of the Hezbe Etemad Melli (National Trust) party lead by Mehdi Karoubi – the 2009 presidential hopeful who remains under house arrest. He represented Kashmar in four Majlis terms – fourth, fifth, sixth and eight. He supported Karoubi in his 2009 presidential bid but joined other MPs, principlists, reformers and independents, in their calls for the “death to Mousavi, Karoubi and Khatami” after the pro-Green Movement demonstrations on Ashoora Day soon after the elections.

Ghodratollah Alikhani. Known as the power sheikh, he was the representative of Ghazvin and Booin Zahra in the sixth, seventh and eight Majlises. He became famous for his fiery speeches from the parliament’s floor.

Daryoosh Ghanbari. He represented the province of Ilam in the seventh and eight Majlises and was the spokesperson for the minority faction. He was the first person to have won a second Majlis term from Ilam. That election resulted in riots in his constituency which resulted in the death of three people and over fifty others injured.

Mousa Ghorbani and Ibrahim Nikonam from principlists and Ali Akbar Olia from reformists are three prominent members of the eight Majlis who did not sign up as candidates to the ninth Majlis. Ghasem Ravanbakhsh, Elham Aminzadeh, Mohammad-Nabi Habibi , Naser Saghai Biria and Soheila Joloodarzadeh - all candidates from Tehran for the ninth Majlis - are the most prominent personalities who did not get the votes to get into the ninth Majlis.

The ninth Majlis will convene on May 28, 2012.

Four-year term. 9 women also made it to the Majlis.