TEHERAN, Iran- (The Jerusalem Post)- [1] Iran’s parliament wants the next presidential elections to be held more than one year early, the Fars news agency reported Sunday.
Parliament approved a draft bill upon which the parliamentary and presidential elections would be held simultaneously in the first quarter of 2008.
As the next parliamentary elections are scheduled for February 2008, but the next presidential elections for June 2009, the new bill would reduce the four-year presidential term of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by almost one and a half years.
The members of parliament in favor of the bill, more than 80 percent, say that the simultaneous formation of the executive and legislative powers would enable better cooperation between the two powers and strengthen parliament’s supervision role.
Hmmm. Something smells, here.
Alex Knapp over at OTB notes the same story and says: [2]
To the best of my knowledge, Ahmadinejad is still rather popular in Iran, so I don’t know that this precedes his ouster, as the editors of the Post appear to. Still, if the article is correct and the Iranian parliament wants to strengthen its “supervision” of the President does provide some hope that, at least among the governing class of Iran, Ahmadinejad isn’t as popular or as politically strong as he appears in the U.S. media. I can’t help but think that that’s a good thing.
I think you’ve missed something crucial, here, Alex.
The Iranian Parliament is run, if I recall rightly, by the religious extremists It is these which brought him to power. As extremist as he’s been, I cannot imagine that their disagreement now has to do with his not being moderate enough… such is the nature of their own extremism. Thus, removing him would only serve to make Iran more extreme than they have been…. an even more extremist brand of Iranian government would emerge. I can’t see as many people would call that a good thing…
Update: AHA!!!!
Robert Tait in The Guardian: [3]
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who flaunts his ideological fervour, has been accused of undermining Iran’s Islamic revolution after television footage appeared to show him watching a female song and dance show.
The famously austere Mr Ahmadinejad has been criticised by his own allies after attending the lavish opening ceremony of the Asian games in Qatar, a sporting competition involving 13,000 athletes from 39 countries. The ceremony featured Indian and Egyptian dancers and female vocalists. Many were not wearing veils.
SITYS, I had an idea it was he wasn’t Islamic enough to suit them.
Nice to see my insticts haven’t soured.