Iran: Regime’s intensifying factional feuding
The Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, grappling with the nightmare of his overthrow subsequent to the recent November and January uprisings, and reeling from irreparable blow he suffered with the elimination of Qassem Soleimani, is poised to institute a unipolar regime. Khamenei wants to consolidate his authority with the formation of a one-faction Parliament to forestall his regime’s inevitable overthrow.
After completing an unprecedented purge of parliamentary candidates, Khamenei warned those “who were elected through elections, but undercut elections,” and scolded his rival faction, “How is it that when an election is in your favor, it is correct and definitive, but when not in your favor, it is defective?” Addressing his president, Hassan Rouhani, who on January 27 had described the election as appointments because of the purge of his faction’s candidates, Khamenei said, “When you falsely claim this election has been engineered or is not an election, you discourage the people.”
Khamenei added, “The Guardian Council has a standing in the Constitution and is a trustworthy institution. How can one so easily accuse this institution as being biased toward some people?”
Khamenei revealed his dread of public apathy and rejection of the election farce and said, “Someone may not like me, but if that person likes Iran, he/she must cast a vote. Thus, anyone who likes Iran and the country’s security, wants to see the problems resolved and wants to see the correct turnover of the elite, should participate in the election.”
According to state-run media, the Guardian Council has disqualified 90 of the sitting members of the parliament, some of whom have served three terms. Candidates in 170 districts are from Khamenei’s faction and the main candidates of the rival faction in other districts have been eliminated, such that ultimately 260 seats will go to the faction most aligned with Khamenei and 30 to the so-called moderate factions.
The rival faction is warning about widespread boycott of the election and the regime’s “implosion,” describing the Guardian Council’s purges as “a looming danger to the foundation of the Islamic Republic.” It has appealed to Khamenei to allow it to compete in the election in order to increase voter participation.
On January 15, Rouhani said, “Do not disturb the people, don’t tell the people that for every parliamentary seat there are 17, 170 or 1,700 candidates. From how many factions? One? This cannot be an election. One cannot run the country with one faction.”
Rouhani’s spokesman, Ali Rabiei said on February 3rd, “An indication of resistance to conduct that will implode Iran (regime) is the presence of us all at the ballot box. All of us must be present, whether critics or those who are worried.”
The regime is planning wholesale fraud and rigging. Mostafa Mirsalim, affiliated with Khamenei’s faction, has already foretold the participation of “at least 70 percent” of eligible voters. Contradicting the rival faction, on January 27, Rouhani referred to systematic rigging in the election. “In any case, we could not make the election electronic… What is this, someone writes on a ballot, then drops it in a box, someone reads it, another person marks a ledger, it is not known what is read and what is marked. Then after we have recorded all [the ballots], at the very end, when they want to compile all the votes, what kind of funny business will take place… Many elections run into problems during compilation of the ballots.”
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), described the aggravating crisis and schism at the top of the regime over the election charade a manifest reflection of another deadly impasse the regime is facing. She said, the complete purge of the rival faction’s candidates is a clear sign of the ruling religious fascism’s inevitable retrenchment in the face of the surging uprisings and the crisis of overthrow.
Mrs. Rajavi emphasized that the Iranian people have cast their true vote in the November 2019 and January 2020 uprisings with chants of “death to the principle of the velayat-e faqih, and death to Khamenei.” They will boycott the mullahs’ illegitimate election more than before. Boycotting this farce is a patriotic duty and the Iranian nation’s pledge to the martyrs of the Iranian people, especially the 1,500 martyrs of the November uprising. It also reflects the demands of the January 2020 uprising of the people and students for the overthrow of the illegitimate ruling theocracy in its entirety. The people and students chanted “death to Khamenei, death to the dictator, death to the principle of the velayat-e faqih, death to the oppressor, be it the shah or the leader,” demonstrating that they want a future devoid of shah and the mullahs, and one based on democracy and people’s sovereignty.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 5, 2020
