Rafsanjani falls to friends and foes alike
By Jonathan Lyons
TEHRAN (Reuters): The last-minute resignation of ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from Iran's new parliament marks a striking reversal for a conservative establishment clinging to power in the face of popular demands for change.
The veteran cleric, who reluctantly led the Right in February 18 polls, announced late on Thursday he had given up his seat to preserve Iran's Islamic system from "enemies" out to exploit allegations of massive vote-rigging on his behalf.
But the announcement, two days before parliament was to convene, masks the extent to which it was Rafsanjani's friends within the clerical establishment -- in particular the watchdog Guardian Council -- that proved his undoing.
"The Old Guard tried to flex its muscles behind Hashemi (Rafsanjani) to send him to parliament at any cost," said one Western analyst. "This time the price proved too high."
Preliminary results released right after the vote had the former president fighting for the last of Tehran's 30 seats, and a report by the official IRNA news agency -- later withdrawn without explanation -- showed him falling short altogether.
It was only on May 20, when the Guardian Council annulled 726,000 ballots from Tehran's pro-reform northern districts, that Rafsanjani's seat was guaranteed.
"With all actions taken in favor of Rafsanjani, I do not know how he could be effective (in parliament)," leading reformist Abbas Abdi, a long-time critic, said earlier last week.
"With friends like these, Rafsanjani does not need opponents or critics."
The election ruling by the Guardians, who have the final say, outraged the reformists around President Mohammad Khatami and left an already cynical public incredulous. Even one conservative daily lampooned Rafsanjani's official 20th placing, an almost unheard-of challenge to a man whose revolutionary pedigree dates back long before the 1979 overthrow of the Shah.
The Khatami coalition, with a plurality of seats in the new legislature, at once promised a credentials fight to keep Rafsanjani from taking his place. Under Iranian law, MPs must approve each new member individually.
Increasingly agitated students denounced him at rallies, raising the spectre of a repetition of last year's campus protests that sparked the worst unrest since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Meanwhile, those moderates still close to Rafsanjani scrambled to preserve their own public standing, while saving face for their embattled mentor.
In the end, a former aide told Reuters, members of the moderate wing of the Executives of Construction party founded by Rafsanjani before the 1996 parliamentary polls, drafted the resignation letter and secured their leader's consent.
"A heavy dose of adverse and poisonous propaganda by enemies created an ambiguous and doubtful atmosphere and there are still ambiguities (about the election results) which could be used by internal and foreign enemies against the system," the letter said.
"I withdraw with all due respect to those who voted for or against me and forgive those who engaged in propaganda against me."
Despite his resignation, Rafsanjani is widely expected to remain a powerful presence on the political landscape.
He still heads the Expediency Council, which has the last word in disputes over new laws between the pro-reform parliament and the conservative Guardian Council. And his grip on a powerful network of political patronage appears as sure as ever.
However, political analysts say the pragmatic Rafsanjani is likely to allow himself to be pulled closer to the reformist camp in order retain his influence.