Key Figures of 2023 in Iran
The key figures of 2023 in Iran were unbelievable. All media outlets and a large number of news followers waited until midnight, the last hour of extended voting at polling stations during the twelfth parliamentary elections and the sixth Assembly of Experts elections, for the news of Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, the leader of the reformist movement, casting his vote, just like in all previous periods. Khatami made headlines in this election as well, just as he did in the seventh presidential election when he entered the race and marked the Second of Khordad.
In the tenth presidential election in 2009, he did not enter the race in favor of Mir-Hossein Mousavi and supported him. In the ninth parliamentary election, which followed protests, he quietly cast his vote in Damavand, away from media hype. In the eleventh presidential election, he supported Hassan Rouhani and invigorated the election atmosphere. In the tenth parliamentary election, he urged people to participate by repeating his call, and later, he once again played a role in the twelfth presidential election, swaying the atmosphere in favor of Hassan Rouhani and the reformist list in the city council.
This time, he made news by not voting and, alongside a large number of people, expressed his dissatisfaction with the current situation. His decision not to vote was in line with his usual warnings to officials about the potential decrease in participation and public disillusionment. He proposed a 15-point reform plan in the days following the 2021 protests, and after the publication of the strategic document of the Reform Front’s elections, he aligned with it, emphasizing that people should not go to the polls at any cost and that there should be at least minimal conditions for an election that would involve the diverse spectrum of the nation. Since these conditions were not met, he did not vote and declared, ‘I consciously did not vote.’
Hassan Rouhani
New Member of the Rejected Ones: Lotfollah Meisami has long chosen a title for himself and some other political activists, saying, ‘We are members of the Rejected Ones of the Islamic Republic,’ whose numbers are increasing day by day. The latest person to join the Rejected Ones is Hassan Rouhani, who once held a good position in the right-wing faction but was gradually sidelined and ultimately faced significant confrontation this year, effectively granting him membership in the Rejected Ones.
Rouhani, who has been a member of the Assembly of Experts since 2000, registered for the sixth term of this election, but the Guardian Council stamped him with disqualification, subjecting him to the same treatment many prominent figures have faced, including the former president.
After the disqualification announcement, he issued a statement initially inviting people to cast a protest vote but then wrote that the system was supposed to allow the people to determine their own destiny, not for a small minority to dictate their choice to them. This was not the Islam introduced to the people, nor the trust for which they sacrificed their lives and youth. In any case, after his disqualification, he issued a statement on the eve of the elections encouraging people to go to the polls.
Meanwhile, Rouhani’s pursuit of the reasons for his disqualification continues, and in his latest letter to the Guardian Council, he stated that the reasons presented lack documentation and requested the council to provide evidence for his disqualification.
Ali Larijani
The Keyword of Purification: Although he did not have significant participation in the March 1 elections, the first electoral speculation by media once aligned with his ideological currents prompted a strong response from him. However, he injected a keyword into the political landscape that will likely haunt hardline conservatives for years.
In May of this year, following a report by Tasnim News Agency about his preparation for entering a movement into the upcoming parliamentary elections, Ali Larijani responded to this claim by starting his denial with the sentence, ‘There is no news about the purification movement concerning the parliamentary elections,’ and the term ‘purification’ quickly garnered praise from some political activists and criticism from others.
Ultimately, he did not present a list for the elections, but according to his close associates, he encouraged others to participate. Larijani leaned toward moderates, although he did not support a list, and by releasing two video messages, he endorsed the two moderate figures and candidates, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht and Gholamreza Tajgardoon, as worthy of entering the parliament.
Larijani’s political presence in the past year was prominent despite not participating or supporting any specific group in the elections, and speculations about his political future were made. Scenarios depicted him as a behind-the-scenes political figure, one of the country’s advisory arms, making his removal from the political landscape not easily feasible. Another scenario suggests that he will wait until 2029, after thoroughly analyzing the country’s situation, to enter the presidential election campaign.
Ahmad Jannati
Farewell to the Assembly of Experts: Perhaps if the political landscape of the country were in a better position, not plagued by stagnation and inertia, and the concept of political competition and activism was defined in its true sense, not accompanied by numerous ifs and buts, one of the significant news items of the sixth Assembly of Experts elections would be Ahmad Jannati’s decision not to register. The news did not specify the reason for Jannati’s decision and did not provide an explanation, but in a politically active and non-passive environment, it could have been a good subject for analyses regarding the impact of this decision and predictions for its future in many political and media circles.
This news is significant for several reasons. First, Jannati has been a constant figure in the Assembly of Experts, present in all five previous terms, and now decided not to participate in this term. Second, this decision comes after Jannati had previously stepped down from positions such as Tehran’s Friday prayer leader, membership in the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, presidency of the Islamic Propagation Coordination Council, and presidency of the Headquarters for Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong.
This raises the suspicion of a farewell to the world of politics. However, considering that he still serves as the Secretary of the Guardian Council and continues to play a significant role in this institution, such a decision to say goodbye to the political realm at the age of 97 has not occurred unless he soon decides to step down from his continued presence in the Guardian Council, which is his most well-known position in the political arena.
Of course, his absence from the sixth Assembly of Experts elections and his non-participation in this election also raises discussions about the presidency of this assembly and speculations in this regard. It remains to be seen who will become the sixth president of the Assembly of Experts following Ali Meshkini (1989-2007), Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (2007-2011), Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani (2011-2014), Mohammad Yazdi (2014-2016), and Ahmad Jannati (2016-present).
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf
Gray Days of the President: When he decided to seriously enter politics, he might not have imagined facing such challenging times. Perhaps the days that unfolded for Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in 2023 were his good days, and the coming year might be even grayer than before. The year 2023 began for the Speaker of the Parliament with criticisms from some conservative opponents regarding his management system in the Parliament. However, as the March 1 elections approached, controversies surrounding him peaked. A few weeks before the elections, documents were leaked showing that the Speaker’s son was attempting to obtain residency in Canada, a process that led to increased internal criticisms among conservatives against him.
Ghalibaf entered the list of the Coalition Council of Revolutionary Forces and took on the top spot, just like in 2019. However, as the election results were announced, it became clear that he was facing a significant crisis, and his credibility among the conservative base that went to the polls had been considerably undermined. Ghalibaf, who had received 1.2 million votes in the eleventh parliamentary elections, garnered approximately 450,000 votes this time, reducing his voter base to one-third of what it was four years ago and making him the fourth in the capital in terms of vote count.
The intense controversies and criticisms from hardline conservative figures against Ghalibaf in recent months, along with the significant decline in his voter base, have led to the perception that the Speaker of the Eleventh Parliament will face even tougher times with the start of the Twelfth Parliament. Meanwhile, various speculations about his future exist.
Some have talked about the possibility of Ghalibaf withdrawing from the Twelfth Parliament, while others have mentioned potential issues in the process of approving his credentials. Additionally, the topic of his repeated presidency and the reduced chances of him sitting again on the chair of the legislative branch have also been raised.
Saeed Hajjarian
Mapping the Future of Purification: The reformist theorist presented one of his significant theories in the past year. A few months after Ali Larijani used the term ‘purification,’ he expressed his theory on this subject in a note. At the beginning of his theory, he states that purification is neither the beginning nor the end of a process and reminds that purification is the middle of a trend, which had a stage before it called ‘devotion purification,’ from which purification emerged.
Hajjarian explains in his theory that the process of devotion purification was carried out through supervisory oversight and other exclusionary and promotional tools, eliminating a major portion of political forces. However, after that, the purification stage was initiated, in which surpassing the devoted was on the agenda. Hajjarian writes that this trend will have another stage as well. He names this stage ‘conclusion purification’ and explains that this process will purify bureaucracy and the public sphere from anything and anyone considered ‘other.’
He also reminds in his theory that the tip of the political criticism spear should not be directed at the purification stage but should focus on the zero point of this process, which is devotion purification. Additionally, Saeed Hajjarian has made other significant remarks in the past year. For instance, in interviews before the elections, he defended the decision of the Reform Front not to present a list in Tehran.
Moreover, after the elections, he criticized the statement ‘Let’s Open a Window’ in a note, reminding that this window was not opened solely for this election but for years to come, and in every election, a group similar to this will speak of the window-opening strategy, and this strategy will remain unfalsifiable indefinitely.
Mostafa Tajzadeh
Protester from Prison: Despite being in prison throughout 2023, Mostafa Tajzadeh did not cease his activities and made numerous comments on the current affairs of the country. His remarks led to a summons being issued for him in prison. Branch One of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office issued a summons for him on two charges: assembly and collusion and propaganda activities against the system.
Tajzadeh’s conversations with Hossein Razagh in prison are part of his activities in Evin Prison, where he has made explicit criticisms of the country’s closed political environment, election engineering, warnings against sham elections, and class disparity. In one of his conversations, he explained that free elections took place in Iran until 1981, and from the time the People’s Mujahedin of Iran took up arms and assassinated high-ranking officials, the atmosphere became highly securitized, and political freedom gradually disappeared.
In one of his conversations, Tajzadeh emphasized the need to insist on constitutional change as a prelude to structural transformations in Iran and criticized those inviting participation in elections, saying that those inviting participation in parliamentary elections, who seek to reform the structure through their representatives via legislation, either do not seek reform and change at all or do not understand what structure is.
Because anyone who has only reviewed the constitution once knows how subordinate the legislative body is to the appointed upper institutions. In the end, he boycotted the twelfth parliamentary elections, which led to new restrictions being imposed on him in prison.
He also, regarding the March 1 elections, published a note stating that this election was engineered and described it, considering the number of voters and the percentage of elected votes, as a historic failure that did not take the slightest step toward gaining the trust and satisfaction of the majority of citizens dissatisfied with the current situation. He remains in prison, and no change has occurred in his situation so far.