Guardian Council against Elders
The Guardian Council’s first attempt to limit and define the boundaries of candidates dates back to the first half of 1981 when Ehsan Tabari, Mohammad Ali Amoui, and Nouraldin Kianouri, among the members of the Tudeh Party, were present in the parliamentary elections competition. Following the Guardian Council’s request, citing that these individuals do not have the ability to swear by the heavenly books of divine religions, they were eliminated from the competition remotely.
Now, 45 years have passed since that period, and the debate on defining the circle of candidates has reached based on the statements of individuals in positions criticizing the judiciary and the Guardian Council.
Nevertheless, concerns about the future of the republican system began from that time, and now the circle of self-censorship has narrowed day by day, entering into a more challenging competition whirlpool. The first impact of this can be the people’s disillusionment in determining their fate, and its secondary effect could be the weakening of the government’s foundations due to the loss of its social base.
The disqualification of Hassan Rouhani in the Assembly of Experts elections on February 4th of last year was among the news that until recently, discussions about its reasons were ongoing. Eventually, after Rouhani’s repeated correspondences requesting the public announcement of the reasons for his disqualification by the Guardian Council and the verbal opinions of most members of the Guardian Council regarding this request, Rouhani’s letters explaining these reasons, responding to them, and warning about the future of the republic system were published by this institution.
Following that, a recent letter by Rouhani was written, which was in response to Hadi Tahan Nazif’s remarks in his position as the spokesperson of the Guardian Council during a press conference on April 16th, where he talked to the media about Rouhani’s previous statements regarding the reasons for his disqualification. It was emphasized that the qualification of the Experts of Leadership with the jurisprudents of the Guardian Council, and the esteemed individuals always emphasized the implementation of the law. These statements are not new.
Apparently, some people have a different opinion when they are approved, indicating a high level of understanding of the Guardian Council, and when they are rejected, they have a different view.
In response to a question about the reasons for disqualifying Hassan Rouhani, the grinder emphasized that there are multiple reasons communicated to him in writing, not limited to the few reasons he mentioned. However, even these few reasons were not clearly stated.
Rouhani’s disqualification is of special importance due to the fact that until this recent period, elections were considered as one of the governing entities and easily dismissed by the Guardian Council.
His warning about the erosion of the republicanism of the system from the perspective of various political currents, which now represent a large portion of the country’s political community but are not in line with the dominant current in decision-making bodies, and were previously removed from the competition ring by the sharp sword of supervision, is mostly interpretable as the republicanism being weakened. Otherwise, many influential political figures in the history of the Islamic Republic have been affected by the new interpretation of the Guardian Council’s supervision, changing it from advisory to mandatory. They have addressed this impending harm and issued a warning about it in the context of reviewing the constitution.
Among the majority of the reformist movement we know today, alongside members of organizations such as the National Front and the Freedom Movement, and some well-known moderate figures ranging from Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Khatami, and Mehdi Karroubi to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri, Ali Larijani, and now Hassan Rouhani, have reacted to this issue in detail in his letter.
In the following, we will take a look at the correspondence and positions of some of these figures in response to the supervisory oversight of the Guardian Council and the increasing closure of the circle of individuals who have the ability to pass through the barrier of this institution.
The first attempt by the Guardian Council to define and set the boundaries for candidates dates back to the first half of 1981 when Ehsan Tabari, Mohammad Ali Amoui, and Nouraldin Kianouri, among the members of the Tudeh Party competing in the parliamentary elections, were eliminated from the competition following the request of the Guardian Council, citing that these individuals do not have the ability to swear on heavenly books of divine religions.
Now, 45 years have passed since that period, and the debate on defining the circle of candidates based on the statements of individuals in positions of criticism from the judiciary and the Guardian Council has arisen.
Concerns about the future of the republican system began from the very beginning, and now the circle of self-interest has narrowed day by day, entering into a more challenging competition, the first effect of which could be people’s despair in determining their destiny, and its secondary effect could be weakening the foundations of the government due to losing its social base.
In the meantime, the circle of warning voices on this issue is expanding day by day, and faces that have not shown much resistance over all these years, especially in 1968, regarding changes and developments in the role of the Guardian Council, are now joining the critics and protesters of this approach.
Mehdi Karroubi and opposition to the birth of supervisory authority
It was in 1970 that as a result of a request from the Guardian Council, an interpretation was made, according to which the Guardian Council declared its supervision as authoritative, and this also marked the beginning of the expression of concerns by figures like Mehdi Karroubi, who was the Speaker of the Parliament at the time.
He refers to his memories and what is mentioned in the book ‘Monitoring the Expediency of the Guardian Council,’ initially discussing the disagreements between the Guardian Council and the Ministry of Interior in the first decade of the revolution and before the passing of Ayatollah Khomeini, regarding the type of unconstitutional oversight based on the constitution and its acceptance by various branches of government and the Imam. He then goes on to talk about the birth of constitutional oversight during the third parliament and his efforts as the speaker of the parliament and the associated formation of the Combatant Clergy Association in preventing it.
Behzad Nabavi, a candidate from the leftist faction in the third parliamentary elections, was one of the candidates, and Fazel Larijani, a member of the executive board, announced that the Guardian Council had requested Nabavi’s file and according to him, the Guardian Council had plans for him.
During that time, Karoubi contacted Hashemi Rafsanjani, the then president, and raised the issue, saying, ‘This indicates a new move, it is tense and provocative, it shouldn’t escalate into conflict and disagreement if such a thing happens.’
Following that, negotiations between the Assembly and the Guardian Council began, and after Karoubi’s telephone call with Jannati and Mohammadi Gilani, the issue was resolved.
Two years later, in 1991, before the fourth parliamentary elections, news of interference and disruption was heard, and the Guardian Council responded to Gholamreza Rezvani, one of the jurists of the Guardian Council who had been appointed as the head of the central election monitoring board by the council, declaring, ‘Our supervision is a supervisory oversight.’
At the same time, Karrubi, along with Khatami, Seyyed Mohammad Musavi-Khoeyiniha, and Imam Jamarani, went to meet with the Leader and raised these issues. Karrubi was quoted as saying, ‘We spoke our minds, the meetings were held, and they were very gracious. They said, ‘If there is a reason for disqualification, I will enter.’
We will not allow anything illegal to happen. It’s not as you say.
It was the end of 1991 and disqualifications happened. He says, ‘We took action, we met, we tried, but our efforts did not lead anywhere.’
Karrubi later, in 2002, following widespread disqualifications before the seventh parliamentary elections, protested against the decision of the Guardian Council and, in a joint statement with Mohammad Khatami, the then-president, and the Combatant Clergy Association, addressed Ahmad Jannati, the secretary of the Guardian Council, objecting to the extensive disqualifications of reformist candidates, appointments instead of elections, and irregularities in vote counting in the seventh parliamentary elections.
At the same time when the parliament members were seeking immunity and the government strongly protested this disregard for citizens’ rights to the point where rumors of changing the election schedule and suspending it emerged, but it did not yield any results.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was unsuccessful in dealing with supervisory oversight.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1368 gradually raised the issue of supervisory oversight of the Guardian Council and solidified his position in the election process. He was the president at that time.
In an explanation he wrote in his 1371 diary, he recalls a night in 1371 when Abdollah Nouri, the Minister of Interior at the time, came to visit him in the final hours of the third day of Nowruz. Abdollah Nouri presents him with a list of disqualifications of individuals, and Hashemi uses the term ‘injustice’ in the country’s political scene. He objects to Nouri that the Ministry of Interior is responsible for executive bodies, but Nouri’s response is that the power and pressure of the Guardian Council prevent the consideration of justice and law in the formation of executive bodies, and legal balance has not been achieved.
He has stated that while some issues have been resolved due to the efforts of figures like Seyed Ahmad Khomeini to prevent such surveillance and qualification assessments, most unresolved issues remain, festering like a bone-deep wound.
He mentioned Karoubi’s efforts in this regard and his meeting with the leadership, saying, ‘I conveyed his and others’ concerns to the leadership, but they were not willing to offer more help.’ The beginning of the work practically brought me a lot of trouble in accepting or rejecting qualifications according to the Guardian Council’s opinion.
Hashemi Rafsanjani also had objections to the issue of arbitrary supervision, not only when he himself was disqualified as a presidential candidate in the 1992 elections by the Guardian Council, but also when the news of disqualification of Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, in the 2016 Assembly of Experts elections was announced. He strongly protested and during a ceremony held at Mehrabad Airport Terminal 1 to commemorate the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and the return of the Imam to the country, he said they do not accept the qualification of a person who resembles his grandfather Ayatollah Khomeini. Where do you get your qualification from? Who gave you the authority to judge? Who gave you a tribune on national TV? If it weren’t for the Imam, the movement, and the public will, none of these would exist. You have given a bad gift to the family of Ayatollah Khomeini and at a time when we should all congratulate each other, you recited this verse.
Although he criticized as one of the close associates of the revolution’s founder on this issue, his efforts remained fruitless and no change occurred in the Guardian Council’s approach.
Ali Larijani and the expansion of non-self entities
If we were in the 1970s, we would never have believed that someday faces like Ali Larijani would be behind the Guardian Council’s barrier. He was one of the prominent figures of the right-wing camp in those years and at least during the years of the Reformist government, he was considered as one of the influential figures close to the hard power core. If we had seen him in the position of a reformist, we would never have imagined that he would one day be alongside this critical current of the Guardian Council. However, this happened in the 1400 election and the news of Ali Larijani’s disqualification was announced.
Although at the same time, Ayatollah Khamenei criticized disqualifications and said that the Guardian Council and the people have oppressed some candidates on social media and have unfairly treated them or their families, who were respected families. My request and demand from the responsible authorities is to compensate for this.
However, these statements did not change Larijani’s situation in that election. His brother, Sadegh Amoli Larijani, also resigned from the Guardian Council following this incident. He took to letter writing in defense of himself and criticizing the Guardian Council’s performance, demanding the reasons for his disqualification to be publicly disclosed.
Her letter eventually caused a widespread reaction when images of her disqualification letter were published on social media on the 27th of Azar that year. Zabihollah Khodayian, the spokesperson for the judiciary, referred to the publication of this confidential letter as the disclosure of classified documents, which is considered a crime.
He continued that if it is proven that the letter was published from their side, it is prosecutable and should be investigated by intelligence agencies and authorities.
Given that her reasons for disqualification were not convincing for herself or the public, Larijani distanced himself from the controversy and somewhat distanced himself from his own circles. Despite news last year about the possibility of her presence and a list by her in the parliamentary elections, which was denied, the exclusive report by Tasnim News Agency about presenting a list in the elections is an example of this statement. Hassan and Hussein are both sisters of Muawiyah, not involved in any electoral movement or presenting a national list or negotiations with others.
Therefore, it is hoped that through this purification process, concerns will be alleviated, and it is unlikely that through this method, the brothers can create artificial competition. Finding other solutions is necessary for resolving the issue.
Thanks to the performance of the Guardian Council, we are now witnessing a tighter restriction on those who are candidates for reaching those limited elective positions. In the past, we used to hear names like Ebrahim Yazdi from the members of the Freedom Movement as disqualified figures, and we thought that the power was in the hands of the right-wing faction. These years, we see that the Larijanis and Rouhanis are being removed from the Islamic Republic train.
Of course, maybe if these same figures had stood up properly at that time when others were being pushed out, this volume of expulsions wouldn’t be happening today. And of course, we hope that the situation will move towards a direction where those in power will prevent this trend from continuing before it gets worse. Perhaps the republic system will also remain safer from further damage.
