http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=48246&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
Top cleric's star rises in Iran after vote
Thursday, December 21, 2006 - ©2005 IranMania.com
Related Pictures
Archived Picture - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has not
commented on Friday's elections, felt the heat personally during a
speech Tuesday in the western town of Kermanshah. During his address,
some in the crowd chanted, "unemployment, unemployment, unemployment is
a major problem," the pro-government daily Keyhan reported.
Archived Picture - Elder statesman Hashemi Rafsanjani, a mercurial
cleric who has played both sides of Iran's reformist-conservative
divide, is rising again as a key challenger to Iran's president after
local elections show deep discontent with the president's hard line, The
Associated Press reported.
Archived Picture - Former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami's meeting
with Rafsanjani on Sunday suggested reformers could turn to embrace him.
LONDON, December 21 (IranMania) - Elder statesman Hashemi Rafsanjani, a
mercurial cleric who has played both sides of Iran's
reformist-conservative divide, is rising again as a key challenger to
Iran's president after local elections show deep discontent with the
president's hard line, The Associated Press reported.
Last week's elections for local councils in towns and cities across Iran
were seen as a referendum on hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 18
months in office, and results so far were showing widespread victories
for his opponents.
Since taking power, President Ahmadinejad has escalated Iran's
confrontation with the United States and the West on multiple fronts, in
particular drawing the threat of U.N. sanctions for pushing ahead with
uranium enrichment in Iran's nuclear program. He has also sparked
widespread international outrage for his comments against Israel and
casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust, the report added.
On Wednesday, a leading newspaper that usually reflects the thinking of
many in Iran's conservative clerical leadership said in a blistering
editorial that the election results showed it was time for Ahmadinejad
to moderate his tone and concentrate on improving the ailing economy, AP
noted.
"The election could be very instructive to those who have been in
power," the Jomhuri Eslami editorial said. "Arrogance, disregarding
people's economic situation, insulting respected people and high-flying
policies were among the elements of the failure of those who could not
imagine such a failure."
Ahmadinejad, who has not commented on Friday's elections, felt the heat
personally during a speech Tuesday in the western town of Kermanshah.
During his address, some in the crowd chanted, "unemployment,
unemployment, unemployment is a major problem," the pro-government daily
Keyhan reported.
The results showed a partial comeback for Iran's reformist movement,
which was crushed over the past five years by hard-liners who drove them
out of the local councils, parliament and the presidency. The reformers
seek closer ties to the West, even the United States, and a loosening of
the power of Iran's clerical rulers.
But the big winners were "moderate conservatives," who support the
clerical regime but have become disillusioned by Ahmadinejad, saying he
needlessly provokes the West, isolates Iran and ignores economic reform.
According to the report, many analysts were now predicting a coalition
between reformers and moderate conservatives to oppose Ahmadinejad and
his hard-line allies in parliament and presidential elections in 2009.
Talk of a political bloc was fueled after two top reformist politicians,
former president Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi, met on Sunday with
Rafsanjani, a top moderate conservative.
Rafsanjani's status was boosted in a parallel election held Friday
picking members of the Assembly of Experts, a body made up of 86 clerics
that oversees Iran's supreme leader and picks his successor.
Rafsanjani won the most votes of any candidate in Tehran for the
assembly, half a million more than his closest competitor, a strong show
of support for Rafsanjani, who lost to Ahmadinejad in June 2005
presidential elections.
"The people's vote for Rafsanjani meant they hope he will create and
improve the moderate line," said Amir Mohebbian, a political analyst and
columnist in Resalat conservative daily.
Final results from the local council election in Tehran were expected on
Thursday. The interior ministry said only a few thousand of the 1.9
million votes still remained to be tallied, blaming the delay on the
large turnout and the simultaneous vote for the Experts Assembly, AP stated.
But partial results showed Ahmadinejad's allies won only two seats on
Tehran's 15-member council, one of them going to his sister, Parvin
Ahmadinejad. Conservative moderates were on track to take eight seats,
and reformers four. The last seat appeared set to go to an independent.
Final results were announced for the rest of the country and showed a
heavy defeat for Ahmadinejad supporters. None of his candidates won
seats on the councils in the cities of Shiraz, Bandar Abbas, Sari,
Zanjan and Kerman. Many councils in other cities were divided along
similar proportions as Tehran's.
The election does not directly effect Ahmadinejad's power. It chose
113,000 seats on councils that administer city affairs and pick mayors.
It was not clear whether Ahmadinejad will bow to pressure to at least
change his tone, if not the substance, of his policies. The
pro-government Keyhan called the election as a victory for Ahmadinejad,
depicting all conservatives as his supporters, suggesting some in the
hard-liner camp do not see it as a call for change.
But many see the vote as signs of an anti-Ahmadinejad moderate coalition
rallying behind Rafsanjani.
The 72-year-old Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989-1997, has
long been an elusive inside player in Iran's clerical leadership. He is
mistrusted by reformists because of his closeness to supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and by hard-liners because of his emphasis on
pragmatism over ideology.
Rafsanjani has supported the Islamic republic's policy of shunning the
United States, yet played a major role in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal
in which the US sold arms to Iran in return for help in freeing hostages
held in Lebanon. He also backs the line rejecting a suspension of Iran's
uranium enrichment program, but has shown a willingness to compromise in
backroom negotiations on the nuclear program.
Pro-reform students frequently jeered him in demonstrations in the past,
and he suffered a humiliating defeat by reformists in 2000 parliament
elections, when he failed to win a seat.
In the 2005 run-off presidential election, Rafsanjani was the more
moderate candidate in the race against Ahmadinejad, but demoralized
pro-reform voters failed to turn out in strength to support him.
But Khatami's meeting with him Sunday suggested reformers could turn to
embrace him.
"People showed in the elections that they don't like hard-line
policies," said Mohammad Atrianfar, a political activist and a leader of
moderate Kargozaran Party. "From now on (Ahmadinejad's) hard-line
current will lose its power and it will return to its place."
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