Iran's fractious hard-liners hold edge as parliamentary election approaches
Despite their divisions, Iran's conservatives and hard-liners are still likely to dominate the legislative elections next month, as many progressives are rejecting the vote entirely.
Iran’s hard-liners and conservatives appear to have failed to reach a unified platform ahead of the Feb. 21 parliamentary election, though they face no serious competition, as Reformists are mostly determined to boycott the ballot boxes.
For a year, conservatives and hard-liners have sought to set their differences aside and form a united front. Senior conservatives established the unofficial Council of Unity to manage the election. The council was at first successful in attracting influential faces. But many of these figures left, including former presidential candidate and nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, along with the hard-line Endurance Front. However, the council continued to meet, presenting itself as the only major coalition of hard-liners and conservatives.
The council has been renamed the Council for the Coalition of the Revolutionary Current. While at first hard-line former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel played a significant role in the council and planned to run in the election as the ticket leader, he suddenly withdrew from the race. His decision seemed to be the result of a deal for three-time conservative presidential candidate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf to replace him.
Currently, Ghalibaf is the central figure in the coalition, though traditional conservative groups including the Islamic Coalition Party are determined to promote their candidate, Mostafa Mir-Salim, and Ghalibaf had indicated that he would run on an independent ticket under the name of “Neo Principlism.” Ghalibaf, a former mayor, is more powerful than Mir-Salim, so the coalition may unite behind him. However, doing so could prove costly for the fragile coalition, as it may cause traditional and moderate conservatives to run on an independent ticket.
