Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)
Washington is so caught up with the debate about whether to bomb Iran or not that very little attention is being given to what is happening inside Iran and the very interesting dynamics that are at play as various individuals, political parties and organizations gear up for the upcoming parliamentary election in March 2008.
This is an important election and from the looks of things key players in Iranian politics are taking the contest very seriously. The latest manifestation of this seriousness is the suggested list of 39 candidates for the city of Tehran just put out by the Kargozaran (Servants of Construction Party), a political party closely associated with Iran’s former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani… The list is… powerful because it suggests that key players in Iranian politics have not given up on coming back to power. The fact that so many have been willing to be placed on the list, despite the assured attack against their personal lives and finances by the hardliners, is a sign that contested politics in Iran (albeit among a limited number of players) is alive and well.
The second reason the list is important is because it tells us something about the likely focus of the campaign; not on Iran’s foreign policy but economic mismanagement and incompetence of the conservatives and hardliners in power both in the parliament and the office of the presidency.
Why all this is important is because the March elections will probably be a forerunner to issues and political maneuvering that will also be prevalent during the 2009 presidential election. Access the full article>>