Preparing to Engineer Another Election?

Rooz Online

Iran’s pro-reform newspaper Etemad has revealed that Kazem Mirvalad, the political undersecretary of the ministry of the interior, who is recognized to be close to reformers, has resigned from his post. The newspaper writes, “The word is that he has differences with Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli over the direction of the ministry (that executes national elections). The most important difference is over the director general for political affairs, the director general for elections and the director general for the country’s electoral boundaries. Even though the ministry has not yet announced its official position on the resignation, a close associate of Mirvalad told Etemad that his departure is certain. This is despite the top echelon interventions within the government, including the first vice-president.” Informed sources have told Etemad, “Kazem Mirvalad lost his standing since last March because of some of his affiliations and events at the ministry, which were not in line with the direction of the new administration under president Hassan Rouhani.” Etemad wrote, “The decisions of the interior ministry in recent months have brought forth strong criticism from pro-reform circles who believe that as the most important government agency, the ministry of the interior has not taken any serious or practical steps in opening up the civil, social and political atmosphere of the country. There has also been criticism over the appointment of new governors and governor generals for the provinces. For example, the appointment of Ismail Najar as the deputy minister of interior brought forth a wave of criticism by reformers and members of Rouhani’s election campaign staff. When he was the governor general of Kerman he had said that the posting of then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a wall had prevented it from collapsing during an earthquake.” Some reports at the time had written that the “deputy minister of interior Kazem Mirvalad had resigned from his post in protest to the mismanagement of Rahmani Fazli who had tried repeatedly to remove the director generals for political affairs, and electoral provincial boundaries under his office which were prevented by the minister himself. Names that have been mentioned as a replacement for Mirvalad include Mahmoud Mirlohi, Ali Asqar Ahmadi and Hosseinali Amiri.”

On May 31st Etemad reported that the ministry of interior will be “streamlined with the coming of Hosseinali Amiri as the new political undersecretary, a post held by pro-reform Kazem Mirvalad. Other pro-reform names had been mentioned as possible successors to Mirvalad but the minister of the agency seems bent on appointing someone who is closer to the conservative hardliners.”

The newspaper lists the three successors for the political deputy of the ministry to be: Hosseinali Amiri, Mahmoud Mirlohi and Ali Aswar Ahmadi. The last two are known to be pro-reformist.

The publication of these reports brought forth a response from Ruhollah Jomei, the director of broadcasting and international affairs of the ministry of the interior. Speaking with IRNA state news agency, he implicitly confirmed Mirvalad’s resignation and said, “Seyed Kazem Mirvalad’s performance has been completely sincere and in line with the minister of the interior. He had said from the beginning that he was going stay at the ministry only for a specific period. He recently notified his intention of returning to his previous field of activity. The ministry will continue to benefit from his views.”

Speaking to IRNA, Mirvalad denied the existence of differences with the minister and said, “Right from the beginning I had planned on staying only for a specific period and in a way to help our friends. Based on my decision I had planned to stay only till the middle of March but postponed my departure to complete some outstanding work.”

He mentioned that he had some neck problems but that this would be treated by rest but it had nothing to do with his resignation.

Minister Fazli also confirmed the resignation of the deputy minister and said, “We insisted on using Mr. Mirvalad’s services but because of the situation that has come up for him he said his farewells today during a deputy meeting.” He added that no person had yet been identified to succeed the outgoing vice-minister.

Mirvalad was the chairman of the board of directors of Bank Pasargad. Earlier, he had also been the head of the state Accounting Bureau and a Majlis representative from Malayer and the governor general of Ilam province. He had also been a member of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s election campaign.