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Larijani whips Haddad-Adel for speakership

The vote was 173 to 100 with two abstentions and 13 members absent.

The vote technically was just for the interim speakership.  Officers cannot be formally elected until two-thirds of the credentials of the newly elected deputies have been reviewed and approved.  But those elected to interim posts are routinely elected to the full-term post a few weeks later.

Mohammad-Reza Bahonar was elected first deputy speaker and Mohammad-Hassan Abu-Torabifard was elected second deputy speaker.

These two men held those posts from May 2004 to May 2010, when Bahonar dropped out of the leadership and Abu-Torabifard succeeded him for one year.  In May 2011, Bahonar returned as first deputy speaker and Abu-Torabifard left the leadership.  Now they are both back where they started eight years ago.

Haddad-Adel was speaker from 2004 to 2008 when Larijani defeated him.  Reports of growing unhappiness with Larijani reportedly prompted Haddad-Adel to try again, but he fell far short, winning support from just 35 percent of the deputies.

Haddad-Adel is the father-in-law of the son of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi.  In a recent interview, Haddad-Adel said one of his goals if elected speaker would be to make the Majlis velayi or fully in synch with the wishes of the Supreme Leader.

He said he was running a low key campaign because he did not wish to be “destructive” of Larijani since both would remain in the Majlis regardless of the speakership vote.

The new Majlis opened Sunday with 288 deputies filling the 290 seats.  The Council of Guardians voided the outcomes of two elections and those seats will not be filled until special elections held at the same time as the presidential election a year from now.

The first action of the new Majlis was to issue a statement signed by a majority of the deputies condemning the recent massacre in Houla, Syria, and attributing the deaths there to terrorists operating on behalf of the United States.

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