‎“282 more candidates were qualified,” was a report trumpeted last week by publications ‎close to conservatives and hardliners. ‎

Iran will witness its eight Parliamentary elections on March 14, 2008. This time, an ‎unusually large number of candidates for the elections have been disqualified by the state. ‎Yet, government and election authorities are doing their best to portray the elections to be ‎‎‘competitive’. There are no reporting of any standards that are normally held for holding ‎free, fair and just elections. As such, government publications are trumpeting the meager ‎increase in the number of candidates as a definitive sign of the competitiveness of the ‎elections, without ever mentioning the composition or affiliation of those that have ‎already been disqualified to run. The greater number of candidates alone is equated with ‎‎“healthier” elections. ‎

But a look at the names of the candidates who have been allowed to run in the elections, ‎some of which names have appeared on websites and the press, reveals the following:‎

‎1 – As was expected, no candidate from the Liberation Front or other opposition groups ‎have been allowed to run. ‎

‎2 – As was expected, none of the prominent figures associated with the two main ‎reformist parties, Hezb-e Mosharekat (Participation Front) and Mojahedin-e Enghelab ‎‎(Mojahedin of the Revolution) are allowed to run for office.‎

‎3 – Although the head of the reformist Etemad Melli party, Mehdi Karoubi, is approved, ‎no other prominent figure from that party has been allowed to run in the upcoming ‎elections. As was expected, Mr. Karoubi’s party (which began criticizing “radical” ‎reformists some time ago) has been allowed to have more candidates than other reformist ‎parties. ‎

‎4 – In the last list of 282 qualified candidates, nothing is more interesting than the ‎qualification of Mostafa Kavakebian and Ebrahim Asgharzadeh; individuals who ‎consider themselves belonging to the reformist camp but who strongly oppose the ‎existing reformist parties. This will certainly benefit the hardliners in their clash with ‎reformists. ‎

As such, the new wave of qualifications will not affect the elections in any considerable ‎way, as they did not entail anything surprising. ‎

In reality, the election strategy of hardliners is to allow weaker and lesser known ‎reformists to run against them, and at most allow a weak bloc of 60-70 reformists to have ‎an ineffective faction in the Majlis that can pose no danger to hardliners’ rule. ‎