The Right is Split over Elections
Jebhe Motahed Osoolgaran (The United Front of Idealogues) which has viewed itself as the winner of the massive disqualification of reformist candidates prior to the March 14 elections, is now busy preventing the publication of multiple lists within its ranks using any method it can. So it is employing heavy tactics to prevent some ideologue candidates so that only one list remains for the public.
In connection with this issue, Shahab News announced through a report titled, “Neck breaking pressure on the Etelafe Faragir Osoolgaran (Comprehensive Coalition of Idealogues) for its withdrawal in favor of the United Front”, that “the heavy political pressures on the candidates belonging to a group known as the Comprehensive Coalition of Idealogues to resign in favor of the United Front of Idealogues entered a new phase when a senior executive authority joined them as a mediator and made unprecedented remarks last Sunday.”
The Comprehensive Coalition of Idealogues which basically comprises of right-wing personalities critical of Mahmud Ahmadinejad has been welcomed extensively. This group published its list of candidates to the forthcoming parliamentary elections on March 4th, whose outstanding feature is that it does not contain the name of even a single candidate belonging to Raihe Khosh Khedmat (the official coalition that supports Ahmadinejad) in the Tehran list. So with the publication of this list, the right in Iran how has two official lists, United Front and Comprehensive Coalition, presented to the public: the first belongs to those supporting president Ahmadinejad while the latter comprises his opponents on the right.
According to Shahab News, with this list, the pressure on the candidates of those opposing Ahmadinejad has been mounting. Apart from the attacks on Ahmadinejad’s opponents that have been appearing at pro-government websites, the commitment of the United Front candidates [5+6] and their official pledge not to appear on the elections list of the Comprehensive Coalition is one of the measures that was undertaken to weaken the latter list and a way to control the dissident idealogues and persuade them to withdraw from elections altogether.
In recent days he United Front has used every means at its disposal to encourage “the extra candidates” to resign. The official Fars news agency reports that 1- candidates for the eight Majlis have already withdrawn in favor of the United Front. Despite this, reports indicate that some of the candidates aligned with the Comprehensive Coalition are fighting back and resisting withdrawal.
Shahab News has also reported that a senior administration official on Sunday held talks with two prominent members of the Comprehensive Coalition in Tehran and asked them to stop the activities of the coalition in any possible way. According to an informed source, this senior administration official angrily called the coalition “a joke” and its members a “bunch of rejected individuals” who were trying to weaken the position of the idealogues and the government. It is reported that while this senior official had held talks with members of the Comprehensive Coalition to stop them from issuing their own independent list of candidates, these recent discussion on Sunday were very different in tone from the past.
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