Iranian regime prepares for presidential poll

Iran's ruling elite is running scared.

With a presidential election just weeks away, the Irani regime is anxious about its political future. And, for now, that is all it has on its mind -- the implementation of its avowed revolutionary socio-economic and political visions remain forgotten.

Iran's power structure is a most complicated one. Its constitution provides for an executive, legislative and judiciary, true. But in reality, there is more to it than these three.

The country has a spiritual leader, a president, an elected parliament and several other bodies to serve as checks and balances to protect its Islamic character. These include the council of guardians, the assembly of experts and the increasingly influential expediency council.

The Vilyat-e-Faqih (spiritual leader) is the supreme authority in the country. Any prospective change in the Iranian government, or any political differences between its leaders are dealt with by him. Society, in theory, is organised according to divine law; and the aim of all political action is the execution of Allah's will.

The position of Vilayat-e-Faqih was initially held by Ayatollah Khomeini who coined that phrase in a series of lectures on Islamic governance in 1963. After his death on June 3, 1989, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khameini, Iran's present spiritual leader, was elected.

Khameini also wears the mantle of Marja-e-Taqlid (source of emulation) which in theory makes him the supreme spiritual guide of all Shi'ite Muslims. (Some religious analysts outside Iran dispute his credentials for this position.)

In 1982, an 83-member body called the assembly of experts was established. It is popularly elected every eight years.

Iran's president is directly elected every four years. He is the head of the executive and appoints ministers, subject to parliamentary approval.

This year's elections are on May 23 and will bring a change at the top. President Hashemi Rafsanjani who has completed two consecutive terms will have to move out -- the Iranian constitution does not allow for the same person to continue in office again.

Rafsanjani won 63.2 per cent of the votes cast in the 1993 elections, on a 57.6 per cent turnout from a 29 million electorate.

Candidates for election to both the assembly of experts and the 270-member Majlis (parliament) -- both of which are elected every four years -- are subject to the approval of the 12-member council of guardians.

This body, half of which are clerics, vet the potential candidates' Islamic credentials. (In the 1996 elections, the council had rejected more than half of the potential parliamentary candidates.) Likewise, all legislations passed in the Majlis must be approved by the council of guardians before it becomes law.

Disagreements between the Majlis and the council of guardians are frequent. In the mid-eighties so many laws were rejected by the council that Ayatollah Khomeini established yet another body, the expediency council, to arbitrate between the two. .

The expediency council has since then become a law-maker in its own right. It decides on political matters that cannot be solved through regular channels. Some observers believe that its power is increasing, and may soon supersede that of the presidency. But the expediency council still remains a tool of the Vilayat-e-Faqih.

In 1989 the Iranian constitution was amended to make the expediency council a constitutional organ, an advisory council to the leadership.

Now there is a new decree from Khameini, according to which the expediency council becomes the main policy-making body in Iran. "It will be the high council," Khameini said, "In my eyes that is a higher office than the presidency."

The expediency council has 26 members, all of whom are appointed directly by Khameini, just as those of the Majlis, judiciary and and the six clerical members of the council of guardians.

The empowerment of the expediency council, some argue, is a ploy of the establishment to buy Iran's commercial sector, the Bazaar.

UNI