Western media coverage has distorted the stakes of the legislative elections in Iran, writes Mojtaba Mousavi Iran held run-off parliamentary elections on 4 May following a nationwide vote on 2 March in order to define the composition of the 65 remaining seats in the country's parliament. Turnout in the elections was around 64 per cent. The ejection of 200 members of the previous eighth parliament in the elections, combined with the triumph of the Principalist Party, indicated a change in the political atmosphere in the country, as well as changes in popular tendencies. However, the Western media have misreported the elections, notably by seeing them as the scene of supposed rivalry between supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Efforts by the Western media to highlight a supposed dispute between the president and supreme leader of Iran came despite the emphasis of most election candidates on their strict adherence to the supreme leader. Many of Ahmadinejad's critics were also former colleagues of his in the previous government, and any criticism of him does not necessarily mean opposition to the president, only objections to aspects of the president's way of choosing senior government personnel. Some of these appointees had attracted theological or financial controversy. Other election candidates, such as Ali Motahhari and groups such as Sedaye Mellat (Voice of the Nation), have expressed radical viewpoints towards the president and are among his opponents. However, it makes no sense to divide political forces into "supporters" and "opponents" of the supreme leader, since adherence to him is the common point of all the main parties in Iran. The results of the elections showed that while the winners were among Ahmadinejad's critics, they were not opponents of the president. Two main wings of the Principalist Party, the Jebheye Mottahed-e-Osolgarayan (United Principalist Front) and the Jebheye Paidari Enghelab (Resistance Front of the Islamic Revolution) won 70 per cent of the votes cast. The Principalist Party was Ahmadinejad's main supporter during the last presidential elections, and they see themselves as his supporters. Another misrepresentation found in the western media concerned the supposed boycott by reformists of the legislative elections. This claim ignores the fact that 1,295 reformists took part in the parliamentary elections, though many of them failed to win seats, including well-known reformists like Mustafa Kavakebian and Soheila Jelodarzadeh. Former president Mohamed Khatami, a reformist party leader, publicly cast his vote to put an end to rumours of a reformist boycott of the elections. The results of the elections showed that opponents of Ahmadinejad had gained less than seven per cent of the votes nationwide. Candidates backed by the reformists also faced failure in the elections, with independents securing some 20 per cent of the vote. Members of the former eighth parliament had frequently challenged the government, summoning ministers and even the president himself to the parliament and opposing many of Ahmadinejad's ideas. The actions of these parliamentarians had caused supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to write to the parliament, reminding it to respect the dignity of the president's office while not neglecting their responsibilities. As a result of the elections, 200 members of the former parliament have lost their seats, leading to the composition of new parliamentary assembly before the presidential elections in 2013. The winning parties in this year's parliamentary elections will now have a better chance of impacting on the 2013 presidential elections, though the elections have shown that Iranian voters are also quite capable of voting out representatives who do not respect their electoral promises. This happened with the defeat of the reformists eight years ago, and it has just been experienced by many conservatives in the outgoing Iranian parliament.
