Tough times for Irans political parties as revolution turns 40
AFP, Tehran
Irans main political parties are on rocky ground as the Islamic Republic marks its 40th birthday, with reformists in disarray and conservatives seeking a new identity.
Even though key reformist leaders have been forcibly sidelined, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former reformist vice-president in the 1990s, still believes gradual change is the only option for his country.
Since mass protests against alleged election-rigging in 2009, his former boss, ex-president Mohammad Khatami, is barred from appearing in the media, and presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have been under house arrest for the last eight years.
There are also few signs of a new generation emerging to succeed them, not least because Irans influential Guardian Council has the power to reject any election candidates it deems unqualified, Abtahi told AFP. The candidates that can pass the Guardian Councils vetting are low-level, he said. You cant expect much from them.
The reformists instead pinned their hopes on President Hassan Rouhani, a political moderate who sought conciliation with the West through a landmark nuclear deal in 2015.
Yet their hopes have proven ill-founded. Since the United States unilaterally withdrew from that deal last year, Irans economy has been in tailspin, adding to popular anger that burst onto the streets in violent protests across dozens of towns and cities a year ago.
When the demonstrators shouted Reformists, conservatives: the game is over, they were not wrong, said conservative analyst and politician Amir Mohebbian. The fact is the (political) game has changed.
Until now, voters would go for the candidate they thought would do the least harm ... but now they have taken as much as they can stand. Now the people want someone who can actually solve their problems.
Mohebbian did not elaborate on potential candidates as jockeying for the next presidential elections, due to take place in 2021, has not yet started.
But the decision to back Rouhani has bankrupted the reformists, he claimed.
Journalist and activist Ahmad Zeidabadi, who has been arrested several times, goes further, saying the reformists plans to try to change the very nature of the state reached a dead end some time ago because of the systems lack of flexibility.
The disarray among the reformist camp however does not mean the conservatives will benefit, said Mohebbian, who believes they first need to redefine their relationship with the establishment.
For decades, the conservatives have been closely associated with the establishment, many of them holding key unelected positions.
