Term begins on a note of defeat

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA, AUG. 8. The Iranian President, Mr. Mohammed Khatami, began his second and last term in office today under the cloud of a fresh defeat for his reform movement. It is not certain whether Iran's pro-reform forces will be able to recover from the psychological and practical effects of this latest defeat.

Mr. Khatami's swearing-in today in Parliament had been delayed by five days due to a dispute between Parliament and the judiciary. Parliament had refused to ratify any of the persons on a list of nominees to the Guardians Council (a supra- parliamentary body that vets legislation to see whether it is in line with the constitution and its Islamic principles) that had been forwarded by the judiciary.

The deadlock persisted with Parliament insisting that the judiciary submit fresh names since those on the list were too political or too experienced but the judiciary had refused. This dispute was then referred to yet another constitutional body, the Expediency Council, that is supposed to arbitrate between Parliament and the Guardians Council.

At a meeting held on Monday night, the Expediency Council worked out a formula which Parliament implemented at a session yesterday. What the Expediency Council proposed could hardly be categorised as a formula - it was more of an order and a severe snub to the reform-dominated Parliament.

The Expediency Council ordered Parliament to vote on the four nominees who figured in the conservative-dominated judiciary's list. If any of these candidates managed to obtain votes of more than 50 per cent of the 290-member House he would be deemed elected to the Council of Guardians. Such a candidate, or candidates since there were two vacancies to be filled in the Guardians Council, would be deemed to have been elected by an absolute majority.

A vast majority of the members who participated in the vote - 162 of the 243 - expressed their displeasure at the choice before them by leaving their ballot papers blank. But this did not amount to anything more than a show of pique since the Expediency Council, under the directive of the Supreme Religious Leader, Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei, had already fixed the balloting so that at least two of the persons on the judiciary's list would be elected.

As per the directive issued after their Monday night meeting, the Expediency Council had ordered that if no one was elected by an absolute majority a second round of voting would be held. Any two candidates who got the largest number of votes in this round, irrespective of whether this number came anywhere close to half the strength of the House, would be deemed elected.

Accordingly, the 81 parliamentarians who actually voted in the first round cast ballots again. One of the persons on the judiciary's list obtained 67 votes and another 62 (the other two got 13 and 4 respectively) and have now been elected to the Council of Guardians. While the conservatives have been able to pack the Council of Guardians, the reformers have obtained nothing despite their defiance. Parliament will now face the same situation it did over the last four years where the Council of Guardians repeatedly rejected legislation it passed.

The reformers' effort to bring about changes in the Council of Guardians was doomed as soon as the matter was referred to the Expediency Council. Theoretically, they could have rejected the Expediency Council's rulings and thus come out in open defiance of the conservatives and Ayatollah Khamenei. Mr. Khatami and his supporters refrained from posing such an open challenge over the past four years, preferring to work for change within the system.

They now seem to have embarked on the same course, the idea probably being that getting Mr. Khatami into the Presidential chair is the most important objective. But this policy of working within the system produced very little in the last four years and given this defeat at the outset it does not appear that the reformers will be very much more successful in the next four years either. That said, public pressure for reform is strong and Iran will still have to try and find a way to cope with it.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : 19 fishermen released
Next     : N. Ireland Assembly likely to be suspended