[Marxism] After admitting vote errors, Guardians back Ahmadinejad

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.juancole.com/
posted by Juan Cole @ 6/23/2009 06:10:00 AM
        
Guardianship Council Rules out Annulment of Election Results; 
Reformists Planning Strikes, Mourning 

Iran's Guardianship Council, a sort of clerical senate on Tuesday ruled out
any cancellation of the results of the recent presidential election, as
called for by the opposition. The official outcome gave incumbent Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad a second term. The vote tallies for Ahmadinejad have struck
large numbers of Iranians as wholly unbelievable. So the Supreme Leader has
spoken and the Guardianship Council has spoken.

It should be underlined that as it developed in 1979-1980, the revolutionary
Iranian regime has two wings. There is a sphere of clerical authority,
represented by Khamenei, and a sphere of popular sovereignty, represented by
the parliament and, later, the president. The clerical sphere includes not
only Khamenei but also two collective bodies, the Guardianship Council and
the Expediency Council (which has among other duties the charge of
reconciling conflicts between the civil parliament and the Guardianship
Council). The clerical sphere also includes the judiciary.

The sphere of popular sovereignty is subordinate to the clerical sphere, but
not a puppet of it. The parliament has passed laws that were known to be
disliked by Khamenei. The popular sphere was a place that ordinary laymen
could blow off steam. Reformists such as former president Mohammad Khatami
used the presidency as a bully pulpit to press for more freedom of
expression and more rights for women. He was largely blocked by the clerical
sphere, but while he was president he did effect changes.

The election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 changed these dynamics, since
his views overlapped in some areas with those of the clerical sphere. In
essence, Iran moved closer to being a one-party state. By stealing the
election for Ahmadinejad, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has effectively made a
coup on behalf of the clerical sphere in alliance with lay hard liners,
which threatens to virtually abolish the sphere of popular sovereignty. That
is what Mousavi and Karroubi and their followers are objecting to so
vehemently. From the outside, Iran was often depicted as a totalitarian
state. But from the inside it seemed to have wriggle room. The reformers are
saying that the regime has just moved toward really being a totalitarian
state and is now removing any space for dissent.

In response, a leader of one of Iran's genuine political parties, Hosain
Marashi of the Kargozaran, which supports former president Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani and a pragmatic conservative line, has called for the formation
of a broad political bloc to work over time to challenge the "illegitimate"
(na-mashru`) government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mir Hosain Mousavi, the chief rival of Ahmadinejad, met Monday with senior
Iranian clergy to complain about the regime security forces attacking
peaceful protesters and killing some of them. He maintains that such
repression will only worsen the current crisis. That Mousavi, a former prime
minister, is still getting access to senior ayatollahs and has not been
arrested shows that the regime is proceeding cautiously in its crackdown.
Mousavi has openly challenged the Supreme Leader, who so far has been
helpless to silence him because of mass public support for him.

Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist presidential candidate, has called for
nationwide mourning of the demonstrators killed last Saturday, to be held on
Thursday. Among the victims on Saturday was Neda Agha Sultan, who has become
an iconic martyr for the reform movement.





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