Human Rights Watch: No Distinct Candidates Left for the People of Iran to Vote For

Human Rights Watch, in a report referencing the disqualification of 60% of candidates in Iran's parliamentary elections, stated that in addition to "serious structural problems" in Iran's electoral system, the "arbitrary" disqualifications mean that "truly no distinct candidates remain for the people to vote for." The organization emphasized that "Iranian officials" have disqualified most reformist candidates based on "discriminatory and arbitrary criteria," while "dozens" of political activists and journalists remain imprisoned for seeking to exercise their rights. According to the report, Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said, "Iran's electoral system suffers from serious structural problems that undermine the conduct of free and fair elections." She added, "Candidates are disqualified not only based on laws that are fundamentally flawed but also some officials act arbitrarily beyond their legal authority to the extent that truly no distinct candidates remain for the people to vote for." Ali Pourali Motlagh, the secretary of the country's election headquarters, announced that if "a large number" of disqualified candidates are not approved, "there will be no competition or participation in some electoral districts." While the executive bodies affiliated with the Ministry of Interior approved 10,954 candidates and disqualified 814 candidates, or about seven percent of candidates, according to Nejatollah Ebrahimian, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, only the qualifications of "about 40%" of candidates were approved by the supervisory bodies affiliated with the Guardian Council. If the number of approved candidates does not change during the appeals review process, the tenth parliamentary elections will have the highest disqualification rate compared to previous periods. In the first parliamentary elections, 46% were disqualified, in the second parliamentary elections 20%, in the third 19%, in the fourth 28%, in the fifth 39%, in the sixth 26%, in the seventh 44%, in the eighth 37%, and in the ninth 35% of candidates were disqualified. The Guardian Council possesses "arbitrary powers." Human Rights Watch also pointed out in this report that the Guardian Council's "supervisory oversight" and local investigations for assessing candidates' qualifications grant it "arbitrary powers that allow it to disqualify electoral candidates even if they are deemed qualified based on the same discriminatory criteria established in the electoral law." The judiciary, the Ministry of Intelligence, the Civil Registration Organization, and the Law Enforcement Force are referred to as the "four supervisory bodies." According to the parliamentary election law, the Ministry of Interior and the Guardian Council are required to send the list of electoral candidates for "qualification review" as mentioned in the parliamentary election law to these bodies. Meanwhile, Mostafa Tajzadeh, a jailed member of the Participation Front party, wrote in a letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic that according to a resolution by the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran, the "legally responsible centers" for responding to inquiries about candidates' qualifications are the judiciary, the Ministry of Intelligence, the Law Enforcement Force, and the Civil Registration Organization, not "legal but irresponsible bodies in elections" such as the Revolutionary Guards and Basij. However, members of the Guardian Council have repeatedly stated that the responses from these bodies are not the only criterion for assessing candidates' qualifications. For instance, Nejatollah Ebrahimian, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, stated on November 25 that assessing the "reputation" and commitment of electoral candidates to "Sharia and the Constitution" is not considered the duty of the "four supervisory bodies" and announced that for verifying candidates' qualifications, "in all aspects, there is no alternative to local investigations." Human Rights Watch reported that based on documents it has "reviewed" and statements from several disqualified candidates whose names were not mentioned, "a significant number of candidates were not approved due to their political beliefs." The report also referenced the disqualification of political prisoners protesting the 2009 elections from candidacy and the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard, leaders of the Green Movement. Meanwhile, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch stated, "Iran's electoral system, which lacks independent oversight, undermines and disrupts citizens' access to the political process and their freedom to choose." Sarah Leah Whitson emphasized, "When the system rarely shows tolerance towards peaceful dissent even during the electoral process, the Iranian government effectively robs its citizens of their right to participate in their own governance." Months before the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, some appointees of the Supreme Leader, including several Friday prayer leaders, called for the disqualification of reformists who protested the 2009 presidential election and their supporters in these two elections. Nejatollah Ebrahimian, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, announced on December 27 that "any comments and actions" regarding the protests against the 2009 presidential election would be the "criteria for action" of this council in assessing the qualifications of candidates for the upcoming elections. Mostafa Tajzadeh, in his letter to Ayatollah Khamenei published on Sunday, stated that "almost all well-known and vote-attracting reformist figures" did not register for the parliamentary elections so as not to "provoke the sensitivity" of the Supreme Leader. However, according to Hossein Marashi, the spokesman for the Executives of Construction Party, out of three thousand reformist candidates, "only 30 people," or "one percent," were approved for candidacy.