Politicos warm up to special committee on election
Tehran Times Political Desk

TEHRAN – A number of political figures have welcomed the decision to establish a special committee tasked with preparing a report on the election process and supervising the recount of ten percent of the ballot boxes.

Two of the losing presidential candidates, Mohsen Rezaii and Mahdi Karroubi, have also expressed satisfaction over the establishment of the special committee but have called for some changes and set certain conditions.

Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaii announced on Saturday that former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, former Majlis speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, former GC jurist Goudarz Eftekhar Jahromi, Prosecutor General Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi, Majlis Vice Speaker Mohammad-Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard, and the Leader’s representative to the Martyrs’ Foundation, Mohammad-Hassan Rahimian, are the members of the committee.

In a letter sent to the Guardian Council which was published on Sunday, Rezaii said the agenda of the committee must not be predetermined or “dictated” and the members should investigate the election process and all complaints based on their own plan.

In order to gain the confidence of the people and the candidates, the make-up of the committee should be changed to make it more inclusive and less biased, Rezaii wrote in his letter.

No strict time limitations should be set for the work of the committee, and it should have full authority, he added.

In another letter sent to the Guardian Council which was also published on Sunday, Karroubi said he welcomes the decision to establish an independent committee as long as it includes moderate figures.

Karroubi wrote that some of the people appointed to the committee had previously taken a biased stance toward the election, and therefore the role that they will play on the committee is clear beforehand.

Former MP Majid Ansari said since some of the complaints are related to the way the election was conducted, it is essential that an independent investigation is conducted.

In an interview with the ISNA news agency published on Sunday, Ansari said a partial recount of the ballot boxes is only one of the demands of some of the losing candidates.

Ansari, a senior member of the Association of Combatant Clerics, said regaining the confidence of the public is more important than the results of the election.

Young Developers Society spokesman Hassan Bayadi said if the committee is tasked with arbitrating in the post-election dispute, it is essential that all parties trust its final verdict.

However, some of the members of this committee have made biased remarks in the past, he told the Mehr News Agency on Sunday.

MP Hossein Nejabat of the Majlis Presiding Board said on Sunday that since Karroubi and Mousavi did not welcome the establishment of the committee, there is actually no reason for the committee to investigate the election results.

“The Guardian Council established this supervisory committee so that no room would be left for any possible pretext (to question the election results), but at the moment, with the way protesting candidates have responded,” there is no reason for this committee to continue its work, Nejabat told MNA on Sunday.

MP Esmaeil Kosari of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said that contrary to what some political factions have been telling the public, the special committee “is not an arbitration committee.”

The special committee is a supervisory committee comprised of figures from both of the country’s main factions that has been established to monitor the partial recount of the votes, he told MNA on Sunday.

Kosari pointed to Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s objection to the make-up of the committee, saying his actions run contrary to all legal and conventional principles.

MP Shahabeddin Sadr of the Majlis conservative faction has described the decision to establish the special committee as an example of “constructive flexibility” meant to clear up any lingering doubts.

The Guardian Council did not have a legal duty to establish this committee, and the GC members should be thanked for their cooperative approach, he told MNA on Sunday.

National Confidence Party spokesman Esmaeil Gerami said here on Sunday that Mahdi Karroubi has called for a change in the make-up of the Guardian Council’s special committee.

The committee is comprised of figures with similar political persuasions, and Karroubi will soon announce whether he will send a representative to the committee or not, MNA quoted Gerami as saying in a report published on Sunday.

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