Ahmadinejad’s High Votes Were Policy of the Regime in 2009

Rooz Online

Infighting between hardline Principlists who were in the executive saddle in Iran through Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency and the more moderates political factions continues. In the latest round a leading figure in one of the hardline groups told Name News website – close to the hardliners – “Ahmadinejad’s high number of votes were the domestic and foreign policy imperative of the regime. It was clear that Mr. Ahmadinejad would get the votes.”

These are the words of Assadollah Badamchian, a leadership member of the Islamic Coalition Party (Hezbe Motalefe Islami) and a former member of parliament, and they come just a few days after the publication of a speech made by Iran’s leader ayatollah Khamenei in 2008 in which he expressly complains that even though he was president at the time he remained powerless vis-à-vis Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who was backed by none other than ayatollah Khomeini himself.

After the official announcement of the results of the 2009 presidential elections that reinstated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the presidency, two other candidates Mehdi Karoubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, protested the elections and asserted that the military had intervened in the electoral process and had engineered the outcome, bringing forth the ire of the hardliners including ayatollah Khamenei who supported Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In his latest interview Badamchian says neither Mehdi Karoubi nor Mir-Hossein Mousavi were presidential material and called them criminals. He said that Karoubi had been made the head of the Majlis because of political considerations (rather than his own merit) while Mousavi’s appointment as prime minister was imposed. “Mr. Karoubi is not of the political elite and Mr. Mousavi is not of the clerical elite,” he concluded.

Ahmadinejad fell out of favor of ayatollah Khamenei and consequently the hardliners well before the end of his presidency in 2013, so Badamchian talked about him too. “Had we broken away from Ahmadinejad, he would not have won the second term. In his first term, he worked in consultation with the Principlists while in the second he turned into his own president and collaborated with his own gang, which brought his downfall,” he said.

During the last recent years a number of hardline Principlists have said that it was ayatollah Khamenei’s desire to see Ahmadinejad win the presidential race in 2009. MP Ali Motahari for example has said, “The beginning of the 2009 sedition (this is the label that hardliners in Iran use for those who questioned the 2009 presidential elections) began when the words of ayatollah Khamenei were misused and twisted to show that he favored Ahmadinejad.” But Khamenei himself on many occasions openly expressed his full support for Ahmadinejad and even said that the president was “closer to him than any other person.” The degree of support that Khamenei provided to him was not rivaled by any other president.

During a trip to the holly city of Ghom in 2000 (after Ahmadinejad had been re-installed president for the second term) and his meetings with the senior clerics there, Khamenei publicly said, “I have no concerns when Ahmadinejad goes abroad.” He had also said, “This administration is different from all others.”

A few months ago, Mohammad Noorizad, a prominent writer and movie director posted two video clips showing the commander of the clerical army, the Passdaran, Mohammad Ali Jaafari and the representative of Khamenei in the force Ali Saeedi giving speeches in which the former said, “The 2009 presidential elections had taken a dangerous turn making it uncertain who would emerge as the winner,” implying something had to be done, which was done.

A few years ago a website close to Ahmadinejad had written that Khamenei had come to conclude that the 2009 presidential elections would go into the second stage, making its ultimate outcome uncertain. The Nokat Press website quoted Ahmadinejad who in his meeting with Khamenei expressed his certainty that he would win the 2009 race because he was “amid the people” (meaning he was aware of people’s sentiment), which Khamenei questioned by saying he did not agree with him because he too was amid the people.