Iranian legislative election, 2008
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All 290 seats to the Islamic Consultative Assembly 146 seats needed for a majority |
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4Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel
Alliance of Builders
Legislative elections for Majlis of Iran were held on 14 March 2008, with a second round held on 25 April 2008. Conservatives loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were considered the victors of the election, at least in part because "all the most prominent" reformist candidates were disqualified from running.
A few months before the election on December 14, 2007, twenty-one moderate and reformist parties formed a coalition centered on Mohammad Khatami to increase their chances in the election. However, around 1,700 candidates were barred from running by the Guardian Council vetting body, the Supervisory and Executive Election Boards, on the grounds that they were not sufficiently loyal to the Iranian revolution. These included 90% of "independent and reformist candidates," 19 sitting MPs, and Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, Ali Eshraghi, who complained,
"What saddens me most is the method of discernment used [by the Council of Guardians]. . . . They had asked my neighbors if I pray my daily prayers, or fast? Does my wife respect the Hijab? Do I shave? Or smoke cigarettes? What kind of car do I drive, and do I dress in a suit!"
Another candidate, Ayatollah Mousavi Tabrizi, protested his disqualification on the grounds of "lack of belief in law and in Islam," noting that he was not only an ayatollah and a member of the scientific board of the theological seminaries of Qom, but he had earlier qualified to run for the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body whose functions include selection of the supreme leader.
With the elimination of reformists, the election has been described as a "contest between conservatives who still support" president Ahmadinejad, and conservatives who don't, or "hard-liners generally in sync with Ahmadinejad and ... `pragmatic conservatives,` ... unsympathetic" to him.
Reformist leaders pushed for Iranians to vote in parliamentary elections, hoping to prevent a sweep by hard-liners allied with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Allies of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seized the largest share of parliament seats, vote counting nearly completed everywhere in the country except for the capital, Tehran, on March 16, 2008. Conservative critics of Ahmadinejad won a substantial bloc in the legislature, highlighting the growing discontent with the president's fiery style and failure to repair the ailing economy of Iran. Reformists, who seek greater democracy in Iran and closer ties with the West, showed strength in some cities where the clerical leadership allowed them to compete. Reformist leaders said March 16, 2008 that at least 14 winning independents are pro-reform, bringing their bloc to 45 seats so far. If correct, that would be around the size of the reformist presence in the outgoing parliament. Iran's leaders on March 16, 2008 declared the country's parliament elections, which were carried by conservatives, a victory that showed Iranians' defiance of the West. The United States and Europe called the vote unfair after most reformists were barred from running.
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Wikipedia