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Watching the Iranian Elections

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The Iranian Government is taking the final steps before commencing their elections of a new government. The upper legislative chamber, a 12-man group called the Guardian Council, is currently screening candidates for the presidential elections that will be held on May 23. Their primary concern is that any candidate must be committed to continuing the Islamic government policies that have dominated their country since the Shah of Iran was deposed.

While the peaceful election of candidates and peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another is fundamental to a country being a democracy, there is some opposition to having a spiritual leader above that of the elected government. Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as Iran's supreme spiritual and political leader after Khomeini died in 1989, currently stands above the government and Iranian constitution. Several contenders for the presidency are committed to preserving a religious leadership led by Khamenei, but serveral others are unwilling to support an absolute leadership.

It will be interesting to see how this election process continues and develops since the candidates opposing the absolute leadership are from the Freedom Movement, a political party outlawed by the Iranian government but tolerated by them as the only token opposition in Iran. Should there be greater support for the opposition party, this could move Iran into a two-party political system. Other countries in the region will pay close attention to see how the Iranian government treats the opposition threat so that one may be able to determine how confident the Iranian government is.

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