Shahram Rafizadeh

With only weeks left to the eight Majlis elections to be held in March, several top ‎military commanders announced in unison their support for the administration and ‎warned against agitation to manipulate election results. ‎

The joint chief of staff in the Iranian military described Ahmadinejad as a “responsible, ‎honest role model” and harshly attacked dozens of former reformist MP’s in the sixth ‎Majlis as “a bunch of people manipulated and employed by the West who write letters to ‎the supreme leader asking him to surrender to Bush and who staged a sit-in in the Majlis” ‎and called on the public “not to vote for manipulated individuals.” ‎

The deputy chief of the Basij, Hassan Taleb, also referred yesterday to the “Basirat” ‎operation (carried out in both seventh Majlis and ninth presidential elections to gather ‎votes for hardliner candidates) and said, “in observation of its central duty, the Basij ‎‎[mobilization force] will organize activities with the goal of increasing the political and ‎religious awareness of the public and the entirety of the Basiji community to pick the best ‎candidates.” ‎

Allegations were raised during the seventh Majlis, ninth presidential and third city ‎council elections that members of the military and the Basij were involved in organized ‎vote-gathering efforts. Military and top governmental officers have not responded to ‎such allegations. ‎

Reformers and critics of the government interpret what Basiji officers refer to as the ‎‎“Basirat” operation to be an organized effort by the military and the Basij to manipulate ‎election results. Specifically, it is said that the Basij organization has asked each of its ‎members to gather ten votes for hardliner candidates.‎

Although the government has never officially accepted such charges, the former head of ‎the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, announced following the 2005 ‎presidential election, “Thanks to Allah, pious forcers were able to achieve victory and ‎attract more popular votes in a real and close competition through great organization and ‎multi-layered planning.”‎

The comments of military leaders are in addition to the fact that dozens of gubernatorial ‎and ministerial positions are now occupied by former military commanders. The former ‎head of Basij, Alireza Afshar, is currently serving as the president of the election ‎oversight committee. Another military figure and former military commander, Abbas ‎Mohtaj, was appointed last week as the Ministry of Interior's deputy chief of security [the ‎Ministry of the Interior is in charge of implementing the country’s elections]. Mohtaj is ‎currently the governor of the Ghom province, and will continue to serve in both positions. ‎