Legislation approved last year called for the total number of ministries to be cut from 21 to 17. Ahmadi-nejad interpreted that to mean the Majlis had given him the authority to decide how to make the reduction. He simply issued a decree merging four pairs of ministries.
But the Majlis balked. And when it became open season on Ahmadi-nejad after he contested the Supreme Leader’s authority to rescind the president’s firing of Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi, the Majlis made a major issue of the ministries. The Council of Guardians sided with the Majlis, saying only it had the power to lay out the jurisdictions of ministries.
Ahmadi-nejad disputed that, but has now completely backtracked and stood by while the Majlis took legislative action over the last few weeks—very speedily for the Majlis.
The Majlis made only one major change to the president’s plan, refusing to merge the Oil Ministry with the Energy Ministry, whose main task is the provision of electrical power. That proposal had drawn a lot of opposition.
To eliminate another ministry and make the target of 17, Majlis deputies and executive branch officials put their heads together and decided to stuff the Cooperatives Ministry into another merger. The rhetoric of the regime says there are three economic structures: state-owned, private and cooperative. The regime started off three decades ago pushing cooperatives enthusiastically. Little has come of that effort over the decades, but the Cooperatives Ministry has remained in place. The latest decision effectively recognizes that cooperatives are never going to be the major economic force envisioned after the revolution.
Here are the new cabinet posts:
• Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Welfare and Social Security, and Ministry of Cooperatives merged together with the moniker of Ministry of Labor, Cooperatives and Social Welfare. That added Cooperatives to the merger proposed by Ahmadi-nejad.
• Ministry of Roads and Transport and Ministry of Housing and Urban Development merged into a new Ministry of Infrastructure. That is what Ahmadi-nejad had proposed.
• Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Industry and Mines merged into a new Ministry of Industry, Mining and Commerce. That is what Ahmadi-nejad had proposed.
That brought the number of ministries down to 17. However, after calling for a limit of 17 ministries, the Majlis last January voted to combine the Sports Organization and the Youth Organization into a new Ministry of Sports and Youth. That was done over Ahmadi-nejad’s objection. He has now stopped fighting that issue.
So, in the end, there are now 18 ministries.
While the Majlis hasn’t stopped feuding with the president by any means, the Majlis and president do seem to have decided to stop haggling over the cabinet. The Majlis and Executive cooperated to come to a mutual position on eliminating the Cooperatives Ministry, for example.
More importantly, Ahmadi-nejad’s newest cabinet nominee won easy approval. Ali Nikzad, the current housing minister, became the new minister of infrastructure on a 205-16 vote with 16 abstentions. That was fewer negative votes than for any minister in Ahmadi-nejad’s second term. That was a dramatic shift from just a week earlier when the Majlis angrily rejected Hamid Sajjadi, the president’s nominee for minister of sports and youth, by the lopsided vote of 87-137 with 23 abstentions.