Iran’s presidential election takes predictable turn
By M K Bhadrakumar | Indian Punchline | April 22, 2017
The ‘known unknown’ in the fateful decision handed down on Thursday by Iran’s Guardian Council on the approved list of candidates for the forthcoming presidential election on May 19 was as regards the candidacy of former president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. That was for three main reasons. First, he is a colorful personality who occupies a unique spot in Iran’s political spectrum, which qualifies to be called ‘leftist’. Iran’s politics needs such a platform, given the nature of its problems of development.
A contestation between the Conservative Right and the Moderate Right detracts from the authenticity of the electoral arena. The paradox is that while there is a faction known as ‘reformists’ in Iran, it serves the same class interests as the conservative religious establishment. The 1978 revolution had leftist moorings, given its genesis as a popular democracy movement, but ended with the establishment of the world’s first Islamic state. And in a bitter struggle within the revolution, progressives got eliminated. It remains a hugely controversial chapter in Iran’s modern history and keeps popping up every now and then, reopening old wounds.
Second, Ahmedinejad was a rare ‘non-cleric’ president. Highly educated, intelligent, articulate and a self-confident intellectual credited with progressive outlook, he showed that a politician can have mass appeal in Iran sans the patronage of the religious establishment. Although deeply religious in his private beliefs and Spartan lifestyle, he lighted up a potential path in Iran’s evolution as a practising democracy that lay unexplored. Indeed, Iran’s progress as a modern state stands to gain if the religious establishment also becomes accountable to the people – not only to god. Did the religious establishment feel challenged by him? It seems so.
Third, in world politics today, we need a Bolivarian leader and therefore if there is no Ahmedinejad, it is a poorer world. Someone should speak up when a mother of all bombs is dropped on a hapless nation which is already at the end of its tether after years of occupation and ransacking and savagery, or when a color revolution is being insidiously fostered in faraway Venezuela. Multipolarity in world politics cannot be a fig-leaf for a concert of big powers to cover their back side.
Ahmedinejad was genuinely an internationalist who dared to punch above his weight and almost got away with it. The world needs him in the era of Donald Trump. The alternative is to settle for Kim Jong Un, which is of course bizarre.
However, in its wisdom, Iran’s Guardian Council has debarred Ahmedinejad from contesting next month’s election. Six candidates have been short-listed, but no official reason has been given. And there is no higher appeal, either.
What explains it? To be sure, there will be myriad conspiracy theories. To my mind, it is a highly political decision that the Guardian Council took. Some time back, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had reportedly asked Ahmadinejad not to put his name forward for this year’s election, so as to avoid “polarising” the country. But the latter displayed strategic defiance. If so, it was a hopeless act.
If an analogy is drawn from Indian politics, it was as if LK Advani had projected himself as the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP in the run-up to the 2014 poll, even after figuring out the RSS’s game plan. Advani showed prudence, while Ahmedinejad needed to be restrained. But then, that is also what makes Ahmedinejad adorable – to fight and lose rather than to shy away.
Ahmedinejad’s exit improves the chances of re-election for President Hassan Rouhani, whose performance on the economic front has been dismal with high unemployment (12.5%) despite the impressive 6.6% growth rate. Rouhani’s main opponent is likely to be the conservative cleric with a background in the judiciary (and Iran’s alleged extra-judicial killings) who heads the prestigious and powerful (and incredibly wealthy) religious foundation known as Astan Quds Razavi with responsibility for overseeing the country’s holiest Shia shrine in the city of Mashhad — Ebrahim Raisi.
It is an “in-house” affair, with a level playing field available for two conformist figures of the religious establishment – one far-right and the other moderate-reformist – testing their popularity. For neither, of course, this is the end of the road in their career. Ahmedinejad would have given an existential dimension to the election, and elevated it as the occasion for a great battle of ideas and roads taken and not taken. Put differently, Iran’s establishment is opting for cautious policies.
Share this:
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
- Click to print (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- More
- Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
Related
April 22, 2017 - Posted by aletho | Timeless or most popular | Hassan Rouhani, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad
No comments yet.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Featured Video
Pfizer Director Speaks Giddily About Manipulating SARS-CoV-2
For more videos go to the Aletho News – Video Category
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
How a false hydroxychloroquine narrative was created, and more
Alliance for Human Research Protection | June 28, 2020
Below, Dr. Meryl Nass reviews a long list of corrupt practices that undermine the integrity of medical science and the practice of medicine during the current medical crisis. The coronavirus crisis has been made significantly worse by stakeholders who are preventing doctors from prescribing for their patients, existing, safe and effective medicines, because the stakeholders are invested on garnering projected future profits from not-yet-developed vaccines and “countermeasures” specifically developed against COVID-19.
The stakeholders who influence and issue medical practice guidelines, include public health officials, global public health institutions, government advisory committees, and clinical trialists who design trials to provide commercially beneficial results. Editors of prestigious high impact, medical journals contribute to the corruption of medicine by publishing fraudulent studies, and reports of clinical trials that were designed to cause foreseeable deaths, The focus of Dr. Nass’ J’Accuse post are clinical trials that deliberately subjected some patients to toxic doses of Hydroxychloroquine.
These collaborators engaged in an orchestrated effort to prevent physicians from utilizing an existing, off-patent, cheap and affordable drug, that thousands of clinicians attest to its therapeutic benefit. … continue
Blog Roll
-
Join 2,472 other subscribers
Visits Since December 2009
- 6,167,431 hits
Looking for something?
Archives
Calendar
Categories
Aletho News Civil Liberties Corruption Deception Economics Environmentalism Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism Fake News False Flag Terrorism Full Spectrum Dominance Illegal Occupation Mainstream Media, Warmongering Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity Militarism Progressive Hypocrite Russophobia Science and Pseudo-Science Solidarity and Activism Subjugation - Torture Supremacism, Social Darwinism Timeless or most popular Video War Crimes Wars for IsraelTags
9/11 Afghanistan Africa AIPAC al-Qaeda Argentina Australia BBC Benjamin Netanyahu Brazil Canada CDC Central Intelligence Agency China CIA CNN Colombia Covid-19 COVID-19 Vaccine Da’esh Donald Trump Egypt European Union Facebook FBI France Gaza Germany Google Hamas Hebron Hezbollah Hillary Clinton Human rights India Iran Iraq ISIS Israel Israeli settlement Japan Jerusalem Joe Biden Korea Latin America Lebanon Libya Middle East National Security Agency NATO New York Times North Korea NSA Obama Pakistan Palestine Qatar Russia Sanctions against Iran Saudi Arabia Syria The Guardian Turkey Twitter UAE UK Ukraine United Nations United States USA Venezuela Washington Post West Bank Yemen ZionismRecent Comments
aletho on Crushed Bug ‘Additive’ is Now… brianharryaustralia on Why are the intelligentsia so… brianharryaustralia on Crushed Bug ‘Additive’ is Now… papasha408 on Did Germany just officially de… papasha408 on Why are the intelligentsia so… brianharryaustralia on Did Germany just officially de… brianharryaustralia on Judge calls California’s medic… Peter on The Pentagon’s Perpetual Crisi… 5 dancing shlomos on 90 Seconds to Midnight? Osvaldo Weilenmann on Germany ‘at war’ with Russia –… rediscover911com on Unvaccinated German care home… roberthstiver on Biden Document Discovery Doesn…
Aletho News
- The Tragic Consequences of believing Anti-Science January 27, 2023
- Crushed Bug ‘Additive’ is Now Included in Pizza, Pasta & Cereals Across the EU January 26, 2023
- The ‘Great Food Reset’: Who’s Behind Plan to Reengineer the Global Food Supply? January 26, 2023
- Why Net Zero is nonsense: a briefing document for opponents January 26, 2023
- New Asian contracts to double Russian gas project’s revenue – Reuters January 26, 2023
- The Pentagon’s Perpetual Crisis Machine January 26, 2023
- ‘There is another Ukraine’ – exiled opposition leader January 26, 2023
- NATO member ‘secretly provided Ukraine with fighter jets’ January 26, 2023
- Weapon Manufacturers Record Skyrocketing Profits From US Arm Sales in 2022 January 26, 2023
- Did Germany just officially declare war on Russia? January 26, 2023
- Judge calls California’s medical misinformation law “nonsense,” blocks it January 26, 2023
- Changing Your Mind Is A Strength Not A Weakness January 26, 2023
- Why are the intelligentsia so stupid about vaccine injuries? January 26, 2023
- Pfizer Exposed For Exploring “Mutating” COVID-19 Virus For New Vaccines Via ‘Directed Evolution’ January 26, 2023
- Supporting the vaccine injured and bereaved January 25, 2023
- COVID Vaccines ‘Opened the Floodgates’ for New Wave of mRNA Vaccines for Livestock January 25, 2023
- Unvaccinated German care home worker, accused of sparking a November 2021 outbreak that left three elderly women dead, faces criminal trial January 25, 2023
- EcoHealth Alliance Gets Fresh $3 Million DOD Grant January 25, 2023
OffGuardian
- 360 Degree Surveillance: How Police Use Public-Private Partnerships to Spy on Americans January 26, 2023
- They have oligarchs. We have socially responsible entrepreneurs. January 25, 2023
- Three Years On: Our Early Covid Articles January 24, 2023
Richie Allen
- Brits Aged Between 16-24 Twice As Likely To Identify As Trans January 26, 2023
- Advanced AI Could Kill Us All Say Oxford Researchers January 26, 2023
- Blair – “Health Security Is National Security. January 26, 2023
- 3,000 More Brits Than Usual Dying Each Week – What’s Going On? January 25, 2023
Consent Factory
- The Mother of All Limited Hangouts January 11, 2023
If Americans Knew
Not A Lot Of People Know That
- Vegan menu leaves Cambridge council with leftovers January 26, 2023
- Meet The Organisation Behind The Media’s Climate Hysteria January 26, 2023
- Gas-Fired Power Is Now Cheaper Than Offshore Wind Again January 25, 2023
- Ross Clark Challenges Climate Hysteria January 25, 2023
No Tricks Zone
Reclaim The Net
- Questions linger as Apple introduces end-to-end encryption for iCloud January 26, 2023
- German government secretly met with US Big Tech to censor speech January 26, 2023
- Adam Curry plugs GrapheneOS on Joe Rogan January 26, 2023
- New York to hire a “Chief Customer Experience Officer” to oversee digital ID plans January 26, 2023
- State representative hints at digital ID push January 26, 2023
More Links
Contact:
atheonews (at) gmail.comDisclaimer
This site is provided as a research and reference tool. Although we make every reasonable effort to ensure that the information and data provided at this site are useful, accurate, and current, we cannot guarantee that the information and data provided here will be error-free. By using this site, you assume all responsibility for and risk arising from your use of and reliance upon the contents of this site.
This site and the information available through it do not, and are not intended to constitute legal advice. Should you require legal advice, you should consult your own attorney.
Nothing within this site or linked to by this site constitutes investment advice or medical advice.
Materials accessible from or added to this site by third parties, such as comments posted, are strictly the responsibility of the third party who added such materials or made them accessible and we neither endorse nor undertake to control, monitor, edit or assume responsibility for any such third-party material.
The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.
The word “alleged” is deemed to occur before the word “fraud.” Since the rule of law still applies. To peasants, at least.
Fair Use
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more info go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
DMCA Contact
This is information for anyone that wishes to challenge our “fair use” of copyrighted material.
If you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe that content residing on or accessible through our website infringes a copyright and falls outside the boundaries of “Fair Use”, please send a notice of infringement by contacting atheonews@gmail.com.
We will respond and take necessary action immediately.
If notice is given of an alleged copyright violation we will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material(s) in question.
All 3rd party material posted on this website is copyright the respective owners / authors. Aletho News makes no claim of copyright on such material.
Leave a Reply