Ultraconservatives Plan To Tighten Their Monopoly In Iran
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his ultraconservative allies are likely to present three different lists of candidates for the parliamentary elections in March.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his ultraconservative allies are likely to present three different lists of candidates for the parliamentary elections in March.
This move seems aimed at creating an overwhelming propaganda push to secure a parliament dominated by Raisi's supporters, ensuring minimal opposition to their complete takeover of the executive and legislative powers. Some social media reports also suggest an effort to replace Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei with an ultraconservative figure, further consolidating power.
A “political purification” push has already begun, with all regime loyalists outside the circle of hardliners being purged from managerial and even teaching positions.
Abdolreza Davari, an aide to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has alleged that Iranian state television plays a pivotal role in this "political purification" project, with Ejei not immune to the attempts to eliminate anyone not closely aligned with the ultraconservative Paydari Party.
Meanwhile, Khabar Online website in Tehran revealed that the Raisi administration is preparing three lists of ultraconservative candidates to overwhelm voters. The website said that the Strategic Network of Friends of Revolution [Persian acronym SHARIAN] led by Roads and Urban Planning Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash will be the leading group among the three.
While Raisi and his associates deny any concerted efforts to influence the upcoming elections, political figures linked to Paydari confirm re-branding and renaming of ultraconservative groups in preparation for the elections. The deliberate tactic is aimed at confusing voters, who may have lost trust in ultraconservative politicians over the past four years due to inefficiency and opposition to nationwide protests in 2022.
Nonetheless, political figures close to Paydari, such as Esmail Kowsari have confirmed that groups linked to Paydari have been re-branding ahead of the elections. Other reports have indicated that re-branding and name changes among ultraconservative groups are likely to confuse the voters.
Ultraconservative leaders know that their likeminded politicians have lost the nation's trust in the course of the past four years both in terms of the inefficiency of their representatives in the parliament and in the government and as a result of their violent reaction to the nationwide protests that shook Iran in 2022.
Ultraconservative politicians may be also hoping that the same groups under different names can be attractive for voters particularly if they come up with generous pledges to voters, although unmet promises about building four million homes, reducing employment and controlling inflation in the past two years have made people numb to any rosy promises.
Politicians and political analysts in Tehran do not hide their concern about yet another drop in election turnout after the disgraceful low turnouts in the parliamentary elections of 2020 and presidential elections of 2021, the lowest since 1979. In some districts just around 20 percent of voters cast ballots. However, Iran's reformists and moderates who were barred from running in those elections and are likely to be barred again in March, maintain that the ultraconservatives favor a low-turnout election as it would guarantee their win despite the embarrassment for the regime.
According to Khabar Online, politicians in Tehran have said that Paydari will coordinate its lists with Raisi. Moderate conservatives have already nicknamed groups such as SHARIAN as "Raisi's proxy groups." Salman Zakeri, a lawmaker from Urmia in northwestern Iran, says the idea of proxy groups is also meant to cover up the discords among the ultraconservative groups. He argued, "It is strange that they have a unity Council, and still they are divided into at least three groups."
In another development, while all of these tactics ahead of the elections are part of the campaign toward political purification, Expediency Council member Mohammad Sadr is adamant that "The idea of political purification has been wrong from the start." He stated, "When we talk about different shades of ultraconservative, it proves that there is no consolidated ultraconservative government."
“This country belongs to Hezbollahis,” said Mansooreh Masoumi-Asl, an aspiring politician with close ties to the ultra-hardliner Paydari Party on live TV on Saturday. The context clearly indicated that she was demanding the total exclusion of all but her own party from the media and politics including other hardliners and conservatives.
Mehdi Fazaeil, a member of Khamenei’s office who has been responsible for publishing his writings for several years, responded to Masoumi-Asl by quoting Khamenei’s remarks about the revolution and those who “own” it.
“The Leader of the Revolution: This is a divine revolution, and its pillars are the people… No one, no group, can and should lay claim to owning this revolution …This revolution is owned by the people,” is a quote from a Khamenei speech in June 2008 that Fazaeli posted on X Monday evening read.
However, Khamenei had also said in a speech that the country belongs to hezbollahis, which seems to have been the inspiration for Masoumi-Asl’s statement two days ago.
“This country is the country of hezbollahis, and its future will be built by these hezbollahis and revolutionary and pious forces. Whenever a problem occurs, they should come and solve it. God willing, this will be the case,” Khamenei had said in September 1995.
The term "Hezbollah," originally employed to denote the Islamic Republic's revolutionaries in their struggle against perceived evil forces, has never held official political party status. In common usage, "hezbollahi" has evolved to describe fervent supporters of the regime and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Hezbollah and hezbollahi (belonging to Hezbollah) became part of the political jargon in 1979, when Islamist revolutionaries described themselves as hezbollahi against the liberal who were soon excluded from the government.
Masoumi-Asl, who is very active on social media and is often invited by the state broadcaster (IRIB) to comment on an array of topics, is a member of the central council of the Paydari-affiliated Strategic Network of Islamic Revolution’s Helper (SHARIAN). The group held its first general meeting in early March.
Iranian media say the group which includes many officials of President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, as well as deputy parliament speaker Mojtaba Zolnour, seeks to oust the incumbent speaker of the parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and his supporters in the upcoming March elections, and to take full control of the parliament.
The group’s activities have caused serious disputes between the Ghalibaf and the Raisi camps, Entekhab, a moderate conservative news website wrote Sunday.
“Our Iran is now at the center of a serious and dangerous development, and we witness a new episode of extremist behavior and deviations by hardliners. [They believe] whoever thinks differently should collect their things and get out [of the political scene],” Mostafa Faghihi, Entekhab’s chief editor, warned in a series of tweets.
Vahid Ashtari, an independent hardliner whistle-blower, tweeted that there are many theoreticians behind the phrase, ‘The country belongs to hezbollahis’ and several billions have been spent to promote this view. Many in power share this view, he said.
Ashtari who is an ardent supporter of the Islamic Republic but critical of most of the ruling cast and their corruption, also emphasized that limiting the criticism to Masoumi-Asl was “reducing the importance of the matter”.
“She will soon be given a good position [in the government] or become a lawmaker … She will mature a little bit and learn like others that she doesn’t have to say out loud everything that she believes in,” Ashtari wrote.
“Don’t mislead the people if you know where the roots of such a belief are and how it has affected policymaking, the money that has been spent, and the consequences it has had and tell the truth about this issue,” he added.