Ali Motahari: The IRGC's Involvement in Elections is Not in the Country's Best Interest

Ali Motahari, a representative from Tehran in the parliament, described the remarks made by the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in response to Hassan Rouhani's comments as placing the Guardian Council "against the people" and emphasized that the military institution's involvement in politics and elections is "not in the country's best interest." On Wednesday, August 28, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani implicitly protested the widespread disqualification of election candidates, stating that the Guardian Council is the overseer and the government is the executor of elections, and that "oversight and execution should not be mixed." Rouhani's comments provoked backlash from several hardline conservatives and Friday prayer leaders, while Mohammad Ali Jafari, the IRGC commander, sharply accused the president of attempting to "weaken" the Guardian Council. In response, Motahari wrote in a letter to Jafari on Saturday: "Regardless of the correctness or incorrectness of that esteemed official's criticism, the IRGC's entry into the realm of politics and its necessities, such as elections, is not in the best interest of the country, the armed forces, and the Islamic Revolution, as it causes division and discord within the IRGC." Motahari also recalled the words of Ayatollah Khomeini, the former leader of the Islamic Republic, stating that "it is not permissible for IRGC members" to engage in "political categorization" and elections. In reaction to Rouhani's remarks, Jafari had also stated: "Those who have found the opportunity to emerge in the management of the country through this council and with the broad-mindedness and non-partisan approach of its members should have more measured speech." Motahari considered Jafari's comments a "type of weakening of the Guardian Council and placing it against the people." He emphasized: "It seems you have put a burden on Mr. Rouhani, the president, and said instead of these words, thank God that out of the kindness and indulgence of the Guardian Council, you passed through this filter and sieve." This Tehran representative added: "What kind of kindness and indulgence is it that someone who has eighteen million votes and might have had thirty million votes if the election had gone to a second round was not disqualified?" Previously, in 2012, Motahari had accused the IRGC of trying to send its preferred candidates to the parliament. IRGC commanders have denied Motahari's accusations. Nevertheless, Ali Saidi, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC, had stated on June 9 that changing the conservative parliament to "another parliament" was a "threat" to the "interests of the system" and also to the "ideals" of Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei. Saidi had said on January 8, 2013, that "the inherent duty of the IRGC is to logically and reasonably engineer elections." These statements led to widespread protests, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the then-President of Iran, stating on January 20, 2013, that "whoever wants to manage the people, the people will manage them." Protesters against the results of the 2009 presidential election also considered the release of videos of Jafari's speeches in June 2014 as further evidence of what they called "fraud" in that election. The Expediency Discernment Council of Iran on February 14, 2015, prohibited the entry of armed forces and intelligence and security agencies into "political and factional categorizations in elections and supporting specific candidates" in a resolution while reviewing the "general policies of elections." These policies must also be approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.