for the Majlis, leaving the public to choose among slates that are almost uniformly opposed to him.
But it’s hard to tell there’s an election this week. There is little evidence of it on the streets and little interest in it evident in conversations. The state media, however, have been doing their very best to drum up interest and encourage the public to vote.
The regime’s main interest is in drumming up a large turnout. The regime sees a large turnout as a statement of support for the revolutionary government and therefore proof of its legitimacy. But many analysts suspect the turnout will be low this time because there just isn’t much choice.
That pretty much left the public with a choice among slates that are strongly opposed to the president, very strongly opposed to the president , or exceedingly opposed to the president.
The campaign is not very enlightening. The government has forbidden candidates to plaster walls with posters. Posters are confined to scattered government sites. That means cities and towns lack the atmosphere of an ongoing campaign that the massive use of posters provides.
Furthermore, the campaign has been limited to a mere seven days, hardly time for the public to sort through all the candidates; on average, 11 candidates are contesting each of the 290 seats in the Majlis.
A giant billboard for the United Principleists Front, which is believed to be the slate that will dominate this election, promises vaguely to “build a house suitable for the Iranian people.”
One Tehrani told Reuters, “This is the coldest election ever. There is no competition and this election is not about the voters. It is about those counting the votes.”
The cluttered ballot, short campaign and uninspiring campaigning, therefore, put a premium on slates endorsed by a variety of groups. Below, we describe what seem to be the six major slates this year.
Slates have always been important in Iran—especially in the capital city where every voter gets to choose 30 candidates out of hundreds running. It has been common in Tehran for all 30 seats to go to a single slate.
A total of 3,444 men and women were approved as candidates by the Council of Guardians. The council’s spokesman revealed that the guardians barred 35 sitting deputies from running for re-election. It said five of them were barred because they are now on trial in the gigantic $2.6 billion bank fraud case. It did not say why the other 30 deputies—all of whom it approved four years ago—were being barred this year.
No list of those dumped from the ballot was released, so it isn’t known if the guardians went after one particular political leaning. The guardians do not, however, appear to have targeted the reformist minority in the Majlis as it has emerged intact.
Rumors have asserted that Ahmadi-nejad had quietly sponsored many supporters to file candidacy papers. The plan, these rumors said, was for him to unveil his personal slate after they slipped through the review process. The Council of Guardians, these rumors said, were most busily engaged trying to root out these clandestine Ahmadi-nejad supporters. The fact that Ahmadi-nejad endorsed no one may reflect the success of the guardians.
A number of candidates withdrew after they were approved—this happens every election—so the total number of candidates listed by the State Election Headquarters is now 3,269.
Here are six slates that are thought to be the major contenders. There are overlapping names on a number of these slates. In addition, dozens of other groups have issued slates that may have influence among their own memberships but will get little or no attention from the general public.
CONSERVATIVES
The United Principleists Front (Motahed) — This is a remarkably unified band of conservatives. It was long expected to fracture, has largely hung together. It is led by Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani; the man he defeated for Majlis speaker, Gholam-Hossain Haddad-Adel; and Tehran Mayor Baqer Qalibaf, who has normally gone his own way in the past. Its formal leader is Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi-Kani, an aging figure who has roots that go all the way back to the revolution. It is staunchly critical of Ahmadi-nejad. Its slate is widely touted to take a substantial majority of the seats this year.
The Voice of the People — This was formed only a few weeks ago by Deputies Ali Motahari and Hamid-Reza Katuzian after they were not put on the slate of the United Principleists Front. The party is viewed as the most vocally critical of Ahmadi-nejad as Motahari has long been the deputy most critical of the president. Motahari has made an open appeal to reformist voters to support his slate and has included a few reformists among the 14 people on its slate in Tehran. The key question is whether the people of the capital, long a bastion of opposition to the president, will come out and back Motahari’s slate to express their disgust with the president.
The Front of the Islamic Revolution’s Resistance (Paidari) — This slate is linked to Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, one of the most rightwing figures in Iranian politics. He has often been portrayed as the theological inspiration for Ahmadi-nejad. The party condemns the United Principleists leaders for being too soft on Green Movement leaders Mir-Hossain Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi. The slate includes a number of people who previously served in Ahmadi-nejad’s cabinet and who are ranked as Ahmadi-nejad supporters. While this party supports Ahmadi-nejad, it openly denounces his close friend and chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, and so is clearly not Ahmadi-nejad’s party. The president’s statement of non-endorsement last Thursday said: “The service-rendering government [Ahmadi-nejad’s government] belongs to all the people; no group or current is contesting the election on behalf of the government.” Some analysts see a victory by this slate as a boost for the reactionary viewpoints of Mesbah-Yazdi rather than for Ahmadi-nejad, who has taken stands on things like women’s dress that are opposed to the ultra-rightist positions of Mesbah-Yazdi.
The Front of Islamic Iran’s Endurance (Istadegi) — This is a slate with 20 candidates in Tehran that was put together by Mohsen Rezai, the wartime commander of the Pasdaran who is now secretary of the Expediency Council. He has run for president twice, and failed to break out of single digits. Rezai had hoped that Tehran Mayor Qalibaf and other major figure in the Principleist movement would join him and form a party that could be a serious challenge to the United Principleists Front, but that did not happen.
REFORMISTS
The Democratic Front — This is a slate led by the 40-odd reformists who won election four years ago and wish to stay in the Majlis. It has also recruited dozens of others and is fielding 15 candidates in Tehran and about 100 others elsewhere in the country. It is led by Deputy Mostafa Kavakebian. Most reformists not in the Majlis have called for a boycott of the vote. The Green Movement has been joined by the Liberation Movement of Iran, the party formed a half century ago by the late Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and subsequently led by his foreign minister, Ebrahim Yazdi, in calling for a voter boycott.
The Workers House and Popular Reforms Front — The long-established Workers House has traditionally been independent of other reform groups. The main impact of its running a separate slate this time is expected to be the splitting of an already very limited reformist vote.
A number of reformists in the provinces are understood to be running as independents, hoping they can win based on local popularity and viewing a reformist stamp as harmful to their candidacies.