There was more than 60% turnout rate at Iran’s parliamentary elections on Friday. It seems that critics of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were leading. However, his political clout in the assembly might remain the same or possibly even grow. Many lawmakers who had criticized the President, including parliamentary speaker and top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, Ahmad Tavakoli and Mohammad-Reza Bahonar retained their Tehran constituency seats.
However, regardless of these lawmakers criticism, camps are not for or against the president. The parliament will most likely not change. It will retain its support for Iran’s nuclear program as well as its strong criticism of Ahmadinejad, but no attempt to impeach him will occur. Iraninans hope that the high voter turnout would send a message to the West that the country was stable.
Many more radical and outspoken critics of the President were defeated, including Hamid Reza Katouzian, the head of the parliamentary Energy Committee, who had criticized the president about the high gas prices. Also, in several cities, candidates linked to Ahmadinejad were elected.
Because of both of these occurring a the same time, it is doubtful that the parliament will treat the president too harshly or take extreme action against him. This may make many of his critics around the world unhappy with the recent elections, and probably many of the president’s critics in Iran unhappy. The world, and Iran will just have to wait and see how this election affects Ahmadinejad’s presidency moving forward.
Want to read the whole thing?: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/ahmadinejad-critics-lead-in-iran-vote-results-but-little-change-expected/2012/03/03/gIQARg6xoR_story.html
No comments:
Post a Comment