Iran’s elections and the anatomy of party defeat

Young journalists club

News ID: 1378
Iran » Iran
Publish Date: 14:03 - 16 June 2013
Tehran, YJC. Rouhani’s victory ended the 11th elections. While it is clear that he represents the Executives and the Reform movement, debates will probably continue on who is on the defeated side and why were they defeated.

It may not be possible to say that the Reform wing has the whole victory as Hassan Rouhani is elected President, but one can assume surely that the loss went to a movement which created a lot of issues for the country by supporting the government’s political and economical approaches during the past 8 years.

What is important is that there can be numerous reasons for this defeat:

· The fact that the Principalists did not make coalition on a single candidate as the hypothetically main reason.

· The emergence of a new group under the name of "Stability” which accused other political currents of "suspicion” of the achievements of the past 8 years.

· The Ahmadinejad administration’s record. In fact the same way that the Ahmadinejad administration tapped into the weaknesses in the Reform administration’s performance to rise to power, its own ineptitude made people redirect their votes to the Reform movement.

· The small number of Reformist candidates and Mohammadreza Aref’s resignation in favor of Rouhani.

· Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s endorsement of Rouhani.

The Principalist Lawmaker Ahmad Tavakoli had said based on the preliminary polls "Whether Hassan Rouhani wins in the first round or the elections draw on to a runoff, the time has come to make up for the damages of the Ahmadinejad administration.”

What is now obvious is that some Principalist groups try to introduce the Stability Front as responsible for this defeat in order to be able to revive the Party for four years later. But it seems that the total number of votes went to the Principalists was not enough to make them a decisive victory.

On the other side it seems that the Reform and Executive wings are trying not to make their past mistakes again. They intend to form an inclusive government and a national coalition to ensure their long-lasting presence in power and, using Reformist figures, members of the Construction administration, as well as moderate Principalists, underpin their power structure for coping with Principalist waves, and probably the incumbent administration current, in the next election.

No doubt the new administration will be no place for extremist Principalists and members of the incumbent administration.

* Hossein Amiri
Your Comment