Iran Divided by Hunter Shireen T.;

Author:Hunter, Shireen T.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Khamenei’s Role

By the time of the 1997 presidential elections, Khamenei had been supreme leader for nearly a decade. At the time, however, he still was not the final arbiter of all matters of state and the most dominant personality of the Islamic Republic. Nor had the country’s politics yet become so bitterly polarized between those who supported Velayat e Mutlagheh e Faghih and Khamenei and those who advocated a more republican and pluralistic reading of the Islamic revolution, government, and Khomeini’s vision. This situation meant that in 1997 Khamenei had to act cautiously and not appear to favor a particular candidate. Consequently, Khamenei himself did not express any preference for any of the candidates. He only stated that all candidates were qualified, and he added that the senior clergy were the best judges of the qualifications of the candidates. Nevertheless, he allowed prominent conservatives to hint as to his preference. Thus, shortly before election day, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani stated that “we guess that the esteemed leader favors Mr. Nategh Nouri.”[6]

Meanwhile, in an atmosphere that presaged the situation of the June 2009 elections, widespread rumors suggested that the elections would be rigged in favor of the right’s candidate. These rumors prompted Rafsanjani to warn that any action to tamper with voting would undermine the people’s faith in the Islamic system. He added that “the administrators of the election procedure must act in a way that the minds of people will be at ease.”[7] This warning, which was also a clear indication of Rafsanjani’s support for Khatami, contributed to Khamenei’s decision to declare that he would not allow irregularities in the conduct of the elections. As a result, the 1997 elections were carried out in an impartial and fair manner and led to Khatami’s victory in what amounted to a landslide. However, the campaign atmosphere and the exchange between Khatami’s and Khamenei’s supporters clearly indicated that the struggle for the soul of the revolution, the future of the Islamic system, and the country itself was continuing unabated, and that Khatami’s election did not signal the end of the Iranian debate and the resolution of the Islamic system’s inherent contradictions. On the contrary, the elections and their aftermath brought these contradictions into the open and polarized opinion and political forces around two different definitions of the Islamic revolution, Khomeini’s legacy and the nature of the Islamic government.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.