Military Personnel and Khamenei's Appointees in Provincial Supervisory Committees

An examination of the composition of the members of the Guardian Council's supervisory committees reveals that at least in 21 provinces, one of the members is either appointed by Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, or is affiliated with military and judicial institutions. Officials representing the 'Vali Faqih' in various sections of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and universities, former commanders of this military institution, Friday prayer leaders appointed by the leader in the provinces, and high-ranking judicial officials are among the members or heads of these 21 provinces out of 31 provinces in the country. Key figures from the judiciary are members of some provincial supervisory committees, despite the judiciary being one of the four sources for vetting candidates and providing necessary information to executive and supervisory committees. Investigations show that in the provinces of East Azerbaijan, Isfahan, Ilam, Bushehr, North Khorasan, Kermanshah, and Gilan, one of the members of the supervisory committees is a representative of Khamenei in the IRGC. The names of these individuals are: Abolfazl Valaei, Ahmad Mohiuddin Miramreshdi, Shamsollah Jalilian, Hossein Dashti, Mohammad Taghi Ahmadi, Ali Morad Yousefi, and Ezzatollah Mo'tamed. Hossein Dashti, while serving as the head of the supervisory committee in Bushehr province, also holds the title of temporary Friday prayer leader of this city. In Isfahan province, in addition to Miramreshdi, Alireza Javadi, a former commander of the provincial IRGC, and Abdoljavad Abdollahi, the secretary of the provincial headquarters for promoting virtue and preventing vice, are members of the supervisory committee. The head of the national headquarters for promoting virtue and preventing vice is Ahmad Jannati, the secretary of the Guardian Council, under whose supervision the supervisory committees operate. In North Khorasan, alongside Mohammad Taghi Ahmadi, the representative of the Vali Faqih in the provincial IRGC, Reza Noori, the temporary Friday prayer leader of Bojnurd, heads the supervisory committee. In Gilan, Mojtaba Ashjari, the head of the provincial Islamic Propaganda Coordination Council, is the head of the supervisory committee. The overall head of the Islamic Propaganda Coordination Council of the country is also Ahmad Jannati, the secretary of the Guardian Council. In West Azerbaijan, Ghanbar Karimnejad, a professor at Imam Hussein University affiliated with the IRGC, a former deputy commander of the West Azerbaijan IRGC, and a former commander of the Ardabil province IRGC, is the head of the supervisory committee in this province. In Ardabil, the head of the supervisory committee is Abdollah Bidar, the head of the representative office of Ali Khamenei in the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization of the province. The heads of the supervisory committees in Alborz, Semnan, Lorestan, Qazvin, Tehran, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kerman, and Hamadan are as follows: Mohammad Hossein Rouhi Yazdi, the temporary Friday prayer leader of Fardis Karaj; Hasanali Arabi, the former Friday prayer leader of Sarakhs and a candidate for the Assembly of Experts; Timour Sepahvand, a former IRGC commander; Ali Ghabele, the head of the Islamic Propaganda Coordination Council of Qazvin; Hossein Ebrahimi, a member of the Combatant Clergy Association; Amirgholi Jafari, the representative of the Vali Faqih at Shahrekord University; Ali Tavakoli, the head of the judiciary in Kerman province; and Mohammad Javadi, the temporary Friday prayer leader of Hamadan. Other members of the supervisory committees in these 21 provinces include: in Tehran, Gholamhossein Esmaeili, the head of the judiciary in the province; in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Ahmad Pourkhaghan, the head of the judicial organization of the armed forces; in South Khorasan, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the representative of the Vali Faqih at Birjand University, and Mohammad Ali Esmaeili, the deputy of the judiciary in the province; in Kerman, Hossein Tahmasbi, the head of the special court for clergy in Kerman and Hormozgan provinces; in Fars, Amin Rasaf, the head of the representative office of the Vali Faqih in the province, and Ali Alghasi Mehr, the head of the judiciary; in Qazvin, Hossein Katirloo Fard, the head of the revolutionary court; in Hamadan, Hassan Khajani, the deputy of statistics and technology of the judiciary; in Hormozgan, Sadegh Alimoradi, the head of protection and information of the judiciary in the province; and in Yazd, Mehdi Sadr al-Sadat, the representative of the Vali Faqih at Payame Noor University of the province, and Gholamali Dehshiri, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of Yazd. Typically, the heads of the provincial supervisory committees of the Guardian Council introduce 10 individuals to the five-member central supervisory committee in Tehran (which is selected by the Guardian Council before the elections), and after review, five are selected and announced to the provincial offices. The names of many of these individuals, the criteria for their selection, and their political and organizational affiliations are not easily accessible. Very little information has been published about the three-member supervisory committees in 480 cities across Iran, which does not indicate their identity and political inclinations. The performance of the Guardian Council's supervisory committees has been severely criticized for disqualifying more than 55% of the candidates in the tenth round of parliamentary elections. Hassan Rouhani, the president, who previously stated that according to the law, he considers the Guardian Council only as an 'observer' of the elections, criticized the widespread disqualifications by the supervisory committees. Hossein Marashi, a member of the reformists' policy-making council, also stated that with the approval of 30 out of three thousand reformist candidates nationwide, the supervisory committees have effectively approved only 'one percent of reformists.' According to Article 99 of the Constitution, oversight of presidential elections, the Assembly of Experts, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and referendums in Iran is the responsibility of the Guardian Council. To implement this oversight, which it considers 'supervisory,' the Guardian Council established supervisory offices in provinces and cities since the late 1990s. Supervisory oversight means comprehensive and extensive oversight over all stages of elections, including the review (approval or disqualification) of candidates, oversight of electoral areas, and counting of votes. Critics of supervisory oversight, which is more contentious than other responsibilities of the Guardian Council, accuse this institution of partisan behavior. They believe that provincial supervisory offices were established to gather information for 'case-building' against independent or reformist candidates. However, the Guardian Council rejects criticisms that the performance of provincial offices overlaps and interferes with the duties of executive committees and the four institutions, namely the Ministry of Intelligence, the judiciary, the Civil Registration Organization, the Identification Office, and Interpol. Members of this council have stated that they also gather information from 'local sources' and pay attention to 'candidates' writings in the press, speeches, and local investigations.' The justification of the Guardian Council is that it is possible that for some candidates, despite being 'notorious for corruption' in their place of residence, no case has been formed in the Ministry of Intelligence or the judiciary, but critics say that supervisory committees refer to unproven claims in judicial courts by anonymous individuals.