Written by Arturo Tha Cuban   

Let’s assume it really matters for a minute. If you had to vote in the Presidential Elections in Iran, who would you vote for? “The Guardian Council” dictates who can run. And it seems that all of the current candidates elected by "The Guardian Council" have ties to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The fact that all applicants (Nearly 700 of them) have to be approved by "The Guardian Council" has been the subject of much debate. They have narrowed it down to eight candidates.

BBC News noted that all eight approved candidates were considered “hardline conservatives", with reformist candidates (notably former president and one of the founding member of the Islamic Republic Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani) having been barred from standing. The BBC's Iran correspondent James Reynolds commented: "the Guardian Council's decision kills off any sense of suspense over the result of Iran's forthcoming presidential election. We now know that the next president will be a conservative loyal to the ideas of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei".

People will argue that these elections don’t really matter. That the president in Iran really has no power, and the real rule belongs to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Others would argue the opposite. But let’s continue to assume it does matter.

If it does carry any weight, then my opinion is that we should really look at Mohammad Gharazi. His campaign focuses on economic issues, and has promised to run an "anti-inflation" administration. He is the only independent candidate approved to run in the presidential election. He doesn't stand much of a chance, but he has the most promise when talking about change within Iran. Gharazi has said that if elected president his first priority would be to deal with Iran’s high inflation.

Gharazi has also said that he does not have money to spend on his campaign. On May 24 he declared “I don’t have anything but experience which I want to share with the people. It is good if they accept my experience. If not, I have to warn them that they will be once again in trouble and once again a government will hold the power which will take money from the poor and give it to the rich.” However, he has not spoken much about international affairs. He has said that he plans to run the government on "60 years of thought", (whatever that means).

So then, where does that leave Iran and its people? That is the big question. With the Ayatollah having so much power, and control of nearly every branch of government, do these elections really matter? I mean why bother. I know the U.S. government wants to see someone in there that will leave their oil in the open-market, and certainly wants to keep the situation as-is. In doing so they accomplish two things, one is keeping the people in fear of a nuclear Iran, and the “congressional military industrial complex” gets their oil.

But in all seriousness who would you vote for, if all the candidates have ties to Ayatollah Ali Khameni in some way? It doesn’t seem like change is on the horizon, and if the people were to attempt their own “Arab Spring”, they will be slapped back as they usually are. Uprisings in Iran are always dealt serious blows with a heavy hand.

So can we hope for a change in the political landscape in Iran? Sure, we can hope. Is political change in Iran really coming? Unlikely. I expect the situation to stay much the same as it is today. We can expect the status-quo for the foreseeable future. Iran will continue to sponsor terrorists at the behest of the Ayatollah, and they will continue to attempt to drag us into another war (Syria at the moment). As long as we are at war in the Middle-East, then we expose ourselves to the Iranian regime. This is the only way they can directly or indirectly go to war with the U.S., and attack our military. If we stay out of the middle-east, then they can’t do much to us, directly or indirectly.

So whoever wins in Iran doesn’t matter to our interests. The election is surely already rigged, with some of the most popular hard-lined conservatives leading the pack. None have any interest in working with us or even any of their neighbors to promote peace within the region. They want the instability, so they have an excuse to achieve more power. As civil wars continue to break-out all over the Middle-East, Iran continues to gain power and influence.

In the coming decades it is very possible that Iran will own the Middle East. And if they continue their state sponsored terrorism without being checked, we can expect a large war at some point. Not necessarily with us directly, but you can bet we will be involved in some way, shape, or form. The situation will certainly get uglier before it gets any better.

So if you and I were Iranian, I would say vote with conscience. Even though, it really doesn’t look like it matters…


Arturo Dominguez
Contributor
New Politics and New Ideas
New Politics Nation


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