TEHRAN (IRNA) -- Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani here on Monday said that the lesson to be learned from the Constitutional Movement is not to forget that people's participation as well as coordination among scientists and forerunners were among the factors responsible for its victory.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the conference on research and analysis of ‘Constitution's Thinking Trends’, he referred to the history of the Constitution as one of the significant points in the course of history, which has been treated unfairly.

"The same elements which were responsible for discords later recorded history in their own taste and according to their factional goals," he added.

"The experience of Constitutional Movement can be quite constructive in the case of Islamic Revolution," he said.

The EC chairman referred to the great similarities of the grounds of Constitutional Movement and Islamic Revolution and said, "During the Constitution period the arrogant Qajar dynasty ruled the country, while in the contemporary era the despotic imperial regime dominated Iran."

Rafsanjani said that in both periods of time, people despised 'despotism'.

He pointed to 'reliance on foreigners' as another similarity between the history of the two revolutions and said that the reliance of Qajars on foreigners was quite serious, but Shah's regime relied on foreign governments more deeply.

He referred to 'discrimination and people's dissatisfaction' as another common point between the history of the two revolutions and said that during Shah's regime one thousand families dominated the country while during the Qajar era the wealthy, aristocrats and princes were in charge of the current affairs.

Rafsanjani also pointed to the issue of ‘leadership’ and said that the Constitutional Movement lacked powerful leader but that in the great Leader of the Islamic Revolution, the late Imam Khomeini, was a leader by nature who had the features of a genuine leader.

2006 marks the centenary of the Constitutional Movement.