Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei during a speech about the 2024 general elections in Tehran (Anatolia)

Tehran -

Tehran has always boasted over the past decades that it held at least one election approximately every two years. These days, Iranian circles are almost unanimous in the importance of the 2024 elections, despite the differences in their political orientations and affiliations.

With the start of the election campaigns for Parliament and the Leadership Council of Experts, which is responsible for electing the Supreme Leader of the Revolution and deposing him when he is unable to perform his duties, Iranian observers believe that the country’s internal conditions, regional developments, and the challenges facing the two councils are almost turning the 2024 elections into the most important election that the Islamic Republic has witnessed since its founding.

After the Guardian Council dashed the reformist movement’s hopes of returning to power through the parliamentary elections in its 12th session, political researcher Rahman Ghahramanpour believes that the Council’s rejection of the eligibility of the majority of reformist candidates almost hammers the last nail into the coffin of the legendary conflict between conservatives and reformists, as he put it.

Ghahramanpour: The world is watching Iran’s elections because they are a tool to legitimize its political system (Al Jazeera)

Ramifications

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Qahramanpour says that Iranian circles are counting on the 2024 elections to restore the dilemma of declining popular participation, which fell from 64% in 2012 to 42% in 2020, explaining that the world is watching his country’s elections, as they are a tool to legitimize its political system more than its role. In the peaceful transfer of power.

He believes that the continued decline in popular participation may expose Iran to more external pressure and sanctions, stressing that the composition of the next parliament will affect the reduction or exacerbation of the ongoing tension in the Middle East, between the axis of resistance and the “Israeli entity” and its Western allies.

The Iranian researcher concluded that the reluctance of one of the two political movements to enter the electoral arena will place the competing team at a crossroads between internal competition and harping on the living situation. This will reflect negatively on political unity, and the widening of the gap between the symbols of the movement close to power.

In light of the reformist movement’s announcement that the Guardian Council has excluded the majority of its candidates from running in the electoral race, a segment of Iranians are betting on the outcome of this oversight policy, to highlight the importance of free competition in the elections.

Aside from the political competition between the reformist and conservative trends, a segment of parliamentary candidates attributes the importance of the upcoming elections to the challenges created in Iran over the past years and decades, and the necessity of enacting laws to address them in the next parliament.

For his part, independent candidate Frebers Natiqi points out the environmental and climate challenges in his country, and warns that not addressing them may turn them into a threat to national security, adding that the political rivalry between the reformist and conservative trends has removed some important files from the agenda of previous parliaments.

The first stage of the elections for the 12th session of the Iranian Parliament will be held on March 1, 2024 (Iranian press)

Intractable files

In his statement to Al Jazeera Net, the geophysicist Faribir Natiqi highlighted the repercussions of climate change, landslides, drought, and expectations of a violent earthquake in the capital, Tehran, in the coming years, stressing that the importance of the upcoming elections is clear from what they will produce, and the ability of the next parliament to help the government, and monitor its performance to address the issue. The most important challenges.

He concluded that there are files awaiting the next parliament. The most prominent of which are: the current challenges in Iran’s foreign policy and regional developments, the results of the upcoming US presidential elections and foreign pressures, in addition to the challenges of the living situation, the decline in the value of the national currency, the annual recurring budget deficit, the tax law, and the housing crisis.

If the external and internal challenges justify the importance of the parliamentary elections for many new candidates, the current representatives are playing on the same challenges to justify what they missed during the past 4 years, and they are betting on the results of the upcoming elections to continue enacting laws that they see as a miracle to put an end to the country’s problems.

In this context, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf announced that he and his political movement had fulfilled 19 out of the 21 axes that formed his electoral plan, and promised the Iranian voter to continue working to implement the rest of them during the next stage.

Montajab Nia: Conservative oversight circles engineered these elections (Iranian press)

Council of Experts

With the start of the electoral campaigns and Iranian television broadcasting numerous programs to highlight the importance of participating in the electoral process, and its focus on the challenges facing the country, and the necessity of choosing the most suitable candidate to take the Islamic Republic to safety, it becomes clear that the elections for the Assembly of Experts are no less important than their parliamentary counterpart.

The Secretary-General of the Islamic Republic of Iran Party, Rasoul Montjabnia, refers to the tasks of this council, which are to choose the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, monitor his work, and dismiss him when he is unable to perform his duties, stressing that the Iranian voter will also choose - in the due date scheduled for the beginning of next March - members. Council for 8 years.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Montajab Nia points out that the current guide, Ali Khamenei - who succeeded the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, after his death in 1989 - is 84 years old, explaining that a large segment of the political class in Iran fears that the next council will face a real test. To choose a mentor during his next session.

He concluded by saying that the importance of the elections for the Leadership Council of Experts comes from the possibility of a constitutional vacuum in the position of Supreme Leader of the Revolution during the next 8 years, adding that conservative oversight circles have “engineered these elections so that the political faction close to power will remain in control of the next council.”

Source: Al Jazeera