On August 3, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s second term of presidency was endorsed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and subsequently he was sworn in the parliament two days later. The representatives of the European Union attended the swearing in ceremony at the parliament.

Before he officially assumed the post of presidency, Mr. Ahmedinejad was already facing a wave of objections regarding his decision to appoint Esfandiar Rahim-Meshaie as the first deputy president. The president-elect gave in to the opposition after a week of resistance, when the Supreme Leader asked him to reconsider Mr. Mashaie’s appointment.
However, the day after his resignation Mr. Mashaie was appointed the Chief of Staff by Mr. Ahmedinejad. The delay in removing Mr. Mashaie and his reappointment to another important post has scorned the conservatives and ulema alike. After all the support, the principlists expected Mr. Ahmedinejad to choose important executive positions with their approval in mind.
Now Mr. Ahmedinejad will soon have to make another selection of forming a cabinet and submitting his suggestions for parliamentary approval.
During his first term, the parliament turned down Mr. Ahmedinejad’s first four choices of the crucial oil minister. Some confrontation for his ministerial choices now is bound to happen by the irate conservative parliamentary majority and the 70 reformist MPs.
Last Tuesday a letter signed by 202 MPs to Mr. Ahmedinejad asked him to select people “practically committed to the constitution and leadership, have revolutionary spirit … adequate experience and expertise.”
Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani emphasized this point by saying that “ministry is not a place for training ministers.”
Past cabinet controversies:
Minister of Industry and Mines, Ali Akbar Mehrabian was recently convicted by an Iranian court of fraud for claiming responsibility for design of an earthquake proof room that had in fact be drawn by someone else.
The case of the Interior Minister, Ali Kordan, who was impeached after 90 days on the job because of his purported fake Oxford University doctorate. Out of the 247 MPs present, 188 voted to impeach Mr. Kordan, with 14 lawmakers against the motion and 45 abstentions.
The controversial remarks made by the Director of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization, Mr. Mashaie during his tenure.
Mr. Ahmedinejad sacked two ministers on July 26, just weeks before a new cabinet is to be proposed. The ministers included Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi and Intelligence Minister Gholan Hossein Mohseni Ejeie. However, later the president withdrew his decision on the culture minister. According to Mehr news agency, Mr. Ejeie was sacked following a verbal quarrel with the president in a cabinet meeting over the appointment of Mr. Mashaie.
Mr. Ahmedinejad was criticized during his first tenure for frequently reshuffling the cabinet, sacking 10 ministers and two central bank chiefs and retaining inexperienced ministers.
The Sobhe Eqtesad newspaper on Thursday quoted Hamid Reza Haji Babai, a member of the Majlis Presiding Board, that Mr. Ahmedinejad has to introduce his cabinet to the parliament by Wednesday, August 19 (Mordad 28). After the list is received, the Majlis will have an open session on August 23 (Shahrivar 1) to start the vetting process.
Mr. Haji Babai said that the MPs will have until August 30 (Shahrivar 8) to review the cabinet.