Rafsanjani may upset reformists' agenda
TEHERAN: Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former president and enduring
revolutionary grandee, has cast a shadow over Iran's polls, threatening the
reformists' bid for a parliamentary majority.
Once the very model of the political deal-maker, Rafsanjani has instead
thrown the contest into confusion with his decision to seek one of Teheran's
30 seats in Friday's balloting.
Virtually assured of a place, the mid-ranking Shi'ite Muslim cleric is also
the front-runner for Speaker, a post he used in the early years of the
revolution to great effect. His candidacy has split the broad-based
coalition that brought President Mohammad Khatami to power in 1997, a
movement comprised of free-market centrists and Islamic leftists.
Now holding together that coalition, no matter how frayed, is the key to
reformists' efforts to displace the conservative majority in Parliament and
speed up the President's drive for a civil society within Iran's Islamic
system.
``We are seeing the effect of Rafsanjani's candidacy now. The first blow it
has inflicted was the creation of a schism among the reformers,'' said Issa
Saharkhiz, a pro-reform newspaper editor and commentator. This so-called may
23 front, named for the date of Khatami's victory, had been widely expected
to agree on as many as 25 candidates for Teheran, the nation's political
showcase.
But with loyalty to Rafsanjani and his legacy as President from 1989 to 1997
the primary litmus test, the centrists and the Islamic leftists agreed on
only nine. The leftists refused to put Rafsanjani on their election lists,
saying he must first endorse their ambitious reform manifesto.
Rafsanjani's own faction, the Executives of Construction, hit back, lopping
off Mohammad Reza Khatami, top candidate of the leftist Islamic Iran
Participation Front and brother of the President. ``This situation will
allow the authoritarian (rightist) faction to capture more seats,''
Saharkhiz told Reuters.
Things are better in the provinces, where the two sides have agreed on more
than 200 joint candidates. But the damage has been done in Teheran, widely
expected to produce the new Speaker of Parliament. With the cautious
Rafsanjani in the Speaker's chair, the next Parliament may not quite be the
engine of reform the President and his allies were hoping for.
A pragmatist in domestic and foreign policy, the former president could play
an instrumental role in reviving the moribund economy and perhaps give
Khatami the political backing he needs to make a diplomatic deal with the
US.
But the President's personal commitment to civil society, transparency in
government and the rule of law are at odds with Rafsanjani and his potent
brand of backroom politics.
Analysts agree that Rafsanjani's speakership is in doubt only if he makes a
poor showing in the capital --perhaps a finish out of the top ten or worse.
Political sources say Rafsanjani was pressured to run by Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, who wanted the veteran politician at the
head of what will likely be an unpredictable plurality of reformist and
independent MPs. (Reuters)
For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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