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Wednesday 5 May 2021

Iran Allows Top Military Commanders to Run for President

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  13 forum posts

TEHRAN (PressTV) — Under a set of new, specifically-defined qualifications, top military commanders in Iran are now allowed to run for president, and a long-running public debate about whether or not men of the military should be able to contest presidential elections has been effectively settled.

Iran’s Constitutional Council, which interprets the Constitution and vets candidates’ qualifications based on those interpretations for general elections, announced on Wednesday that earlier, broadly-worded criteria had now been clarified in specific detail.

One criterion says “ministers, provincial governors, mayors of cities with a population of above two million, [and] top commanders of the Armed Forces with the status of major general and higher” can now register for candidacy.

Formerly, the Council had to interpret a rather broadly-worded Constitutional article on the qualifications of president on a case-by-case basis for each nominee.

The new specific criterion ends a debate that had been unfolding publicly for years about whether military men should be authorized to run for an inherently civilian office. Since the Constitution does not directly address the issue, the two sides of the debate both had ammo at their disposal. Opponents argued that officers should remain in the barracks and leave the office of the presidency to civilians. Proponents pointed to the managerial skills of distinguished officers and said they could run safely by resigning from their military posts first.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether the new interpretation addressed another public debate — about the gender of potential candidates. While laying out the broad qualifications of president, the Iranian Constitution stipulates that the individual be, among other things, a political and religious rajol. The word is borrowed from Arabic and literally translates as “man”. Some Constitutional scholars argue that it should not be taken literally and that a woman of high political status and/or background should be considered “a political rajol” as well and thus be entitled to run for president.

Iran is preparing to hold its 13th presidential election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution on June 18. Hopefuls will be able to register as early as next week.

No military commander who is on duty has declared a presidential bid yet. However, many persons with military backgrounds have, among them former Defence Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan and former Commander at the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Second-Brigadier General Saeed Mohammad.


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  Forum posts

  • It would be a great step if some people from the military who are very committed to the independence of the country would take over the Iranian government and sweep away corrupt people like Zarif and Roohani.

  • نکنه دستی دستی میخان قالیباف مادر جنده رو بکنن رییس جمهور. قبلن هم گفتم این سایت خیلی بوی جمهوری اسلامی میده. اون هم ازنوع پاسدار و حزب اللهی.

  • @ the guy with a russian name

    For Russians, a puppet of the dictator Putin is a nationalist.

  • Without Russia, the whole world would be enslaved by NATO. Like it or not, Trump is helping Iran to remain independent of the US. Remember before 1979 when Iran was occupied by the US military?

  • نظام همه مهره هاشو بای کرده دیگه کسی دیگری رو نداره ناچاره رو بیاره به سپاه

  • Apart from the WWII, Iran has never been occupied by the US army. But Russia has occupied Iran several times over the past 250 years. The Pasdaran work for Russia, so you could say that Iran is currently occupied by Russia.

  • مهره های وابسته به روسیه نمیخواهند ایران با آمریکا کنار بیاید. نقشه ی نهائی آنها ملحق شدن ایران به اتحادیه ی اورآسیا است. اگر این کار انجام گیرد ایران میشود یک استان روسیه. حتی ریال نیز از میان خواهد رفت و پول واحد جایگزینش خواهد شد. در واقع حکومت آخوندی همه آرزوهای چند صد ساله ی روسها را دارد برآورد می سازد.

  • This is probably a coup d’état without the name. The military, with Russian support or not, want to take power. The clergy, which is in difficulty because of forty years of economic depression, no longer has the means to resist. Iran is broke and this kind of trickery will not change the situation.

  • "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." — George Orwell

  • Usually, in the 3rd world, the military is anti-clerical. This is the case in South America, Turkey and some Arab countries. Iran is very special. We have no idea about the mentality of the military in that country. Are the Pasdaran pro-anti- or neutral towards the clergy? If they are anti-clergy, what is their conception of Shia Islam? This point is never addressed in the media.

  • The only period Iran was independent and specially independent from Russian domination and oppression was during the Pahlavi era (1925*1979). The USA was an ally and not a dominator.

  • i’m in Ahvaz. As we say, if you put a donkey up for election here, as long as it has a Mulla badge on it, it will get in. I don’t bother voting anymore, they’re all hezbollahi candidates.

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