Middle East
Iran blocks former president’s website ahead of vote
Iran has blocked the website of influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ahead of parliamentary elections, for carrying pro-reform critical statements, Iran's semi-official ILNA news agency reported on Friday. The clerical establishment has increased pressure on the pro-reform opposition ahead of the March 2 vote, the first nationwide poll since a 2009 disputed presidential vote that triggered prolonged and widespread anti-government protests. In the past days, some leading reformist figures have been sentenced to long-term jail sentences.
Opposition leader calls upcoming Iran election bogus
Political prisoners: ‘Don’t give legitimacy to elections’
Iranians are witnessing an undeclared martial law in their country, according to a group of political prisoners held in the notorious Evin Prison. In a statement published on Wednesday on Kaleme, an opposition website affiliated with Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, the 39 political detainees said that the forthcoming parliamentary elections in March 2012 would "bear no resemblance to the elections mentioned in the country s constitution."
The Supreme Leader Is Worried — Three Developments You Probably Don’t Know
Followers of our daily coverage of Iran will be aware of the political tensions that have gripped the Islamic Republic's establishment. Those battles, from charges of corruption to warning of a "deviant current" affecting the Government, will only grow in intensity before next March's Parliamentary elections. Yet EA sources have given us a story that goes even farther. The core of the tale is the belief amongst many observers in Iran that, despite all the attacks upon it, the President's camp will be the winner in the elections. Whether or not that assessment is correct, the Supreme Leader's advisors are concerned.
Analysis British embassy storming bares rift in Iran elite
Iranian reformists see free elections, not constitutional changes as way out of crisis
Even though the suggestion that Iran s supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei made two weeks ago about changing the constitution of the country from a presidential to a parliamentary system received a cold response in domestic political circles including key regime personalities such as ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Majlis members who is close to the conservatives yesterday announced that ayatollah Khamenei had named a special group to examine the possibility of amending the constitution.
Mousavi says no point in joining Iran’s parliamentary elections
Emad Afrough Don’t expect People to Participate
Did Mojtaba Khamenei Rig the 2009 Election
Former President Khatami’s Manoeuvre on ElectionsÂ
Our demands in the past as well as the present are clear, and have been emphasized even in the aftermath of the recent [2009 presidential] election. [Favourable] conditions for broad participation of people [in the elections] and guaranteeing their rights must be provided. In addition, the elections must be held in such a way that there will be minimum hindrance of free voting by the people and maximum conditions for materializing their demands and ideals.