Mehr News: World Arrogance "'satisfied' with the extensive disqualification of the candidates"

Guardian Council disqualifications of candidates make Iran's elections almost meaningless. Nobody is allowed to admit that in this article, but someone is quoted asserting that the "World Arrogance" approves of the disqualifications, presumably because the Satans of various sizes are rooting against Iranian "democracy." (A man can only hold out so long against the use of scare quotes.) The Iranian Press does not suppress all admissions of discord. Not yet, anyway--look for the final steps in acquiring nukes to usher in new oppressive measures. In the meantime admissions that the country is not surging ahead with the might of single-minded unity are usually quite interesting:

Negotiations aimed at "bypassing the law" will not influence the vetting practice by the Guardian Council, the GC spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaii told a press conference on Saturday.

"Guardian Council’s criterion for vetting the candidates is law, and if negotiations about requalifications are based on law, they will be effective; but if the consultations are aimed at bypassing the law, they won’t have any effect on the body."

Assuring that there would be no problem in studying the petitions of the rejected candidates, Kadkhodaii said, "We expect the parties and individuals not to jump to conclusions."

Asked whether membership in Islamic Iran Participation Party (IIPP) and Islamic Revolution Mojahedin Organization (IRMO) has led into rejection of some candidates, he said GC vets candidates regardless of their affiliation to political groups or parties except those who are members of illegal parties.

GC will inform the excluded candidates about the reasons behind their disqualification, he vowed . . .

Former Majlis speaker Mahdi Karrubi, former president Mohammad Khatami and Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani were likely to meet to negotiate about banned candidates, Esmail Gerami-Moghadam, the spokesman for the National Confidence Party, told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) on Saturday.

Karrubi, the NCP secretary general, is going to meet with many of prominent political figures to negotiate the situation created after the rejection of some candidates at the request of NCP central committee and other reformist figures, Gerami-Moghadam noted.

"I intend to defend the rights of all candidates who have been unfairly disqualified including the members of the National Confidence Party and other reformists and even conservative figures who protest the screening," Karrubi has told a NCP extraordinary meeting.

"I have always been against politically-motivated disqualification and believe it is not in the national interest," he has pointed out.

"If the present vetting process by the oversight bodies is not corrected, we will not have any nominees in many of the constituents," Democracy Party Secretary General Kavakebian told ISNA on Saturday.

He urged the supervisory commissions not to disappoint the country’s political elite.

"World arrogance" is not interested in a high turnout in the March election and contrary to what it claims it is "satisfied" with the extensive disqualification of the candidates because it prevents a massive participation in the voting by the Iranians, he commented.

Hardliners get the last word:

Meanwhile Morteza Nabavi of the conservative Islamic Society of Engineers has said those who were convinced of their exclusion registered for the ballot to question the election.

Some of the rejected ones have recently said it was not necessary for the candidates to accept the "principles of the Islamic system" and this was a strong indication for rejecting their candidacy, the former MP noted . . .

"Not necessary"? Can't have that.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Tags: Iran, Guardian Council, elections