Those who had spent time at the Iran-Iraq war fronts or those who have military training, ‎are well familiar with the term “night pass.” The term is similar to what computer users ‎experience repeatedly everyday. They simply call it a “password”.‎

In Iran, “password” is a term that is prevalent not only among computer users, but also in ‎the realm of power and politics. To enter the realm of power one needs to know the ‎‎“password” of its gates or know from the past the ways of getting into that world.‎

While the seventh Majlis elections that that took place in 2004, the presidential elections ‎that took place in 2005, and the last Majlis Khobregan (Experts Assembly for the ‎Leadership) elections after it demonstrated some of the aspects of this key phenomena, ‎the forthcoming Majlis elections on March 14th is clarifying to some reformists who had ‎until now remained aloof where the problem lies and who is the principal creator of the ‎password [none other than the supreme leader of the Islamic republic]. They are learning ‎that not only must they know the password to be included in the game of politics in the ‎country and that the code word continuously changes, but that the gates of the world of ‎power are for now shut to them: until further notice. So I think rather than spending time ‎to uncover what the password is, they should concentrate on understanding the codes of ‎the game of politics in a system controlled by the Velayate Faghih (leadership of the ‎clerics).‎

And for this, they do not have to go very far. For example, they could look at how the ‎reformist and independent candidates for the March elections were eliminated. Aside ‎those that did not sign up as nominees for the elections, about 909 reformist candidates ‎did sign up. From amongst them, a meagre138 have been approved to compete for 31 ‎seats of the 290-seat Majlis! Even if all 31 seats are won by the reformists, they will ‎comprise only 11 percent of the parliament. That speaks of the insignificant power they ‎will have, if any.‎

This state of affairs has forced the intelligent, but weak group of reformists to criticize the ‎source of the problem, i.e. the Velayate Faghih system. So the upcoming elections and ‎more specifically the disqualification of reformist candidates are in reality making Iranian ‎politics more transparent, and deepening the political criticism carried out by the ‎reformists. These are positive events.‎

On the other hand, grasping this reality is making reformers conclude that they must stay ‎out of this game of “uncompetitive elections”: which is another event to rejoice. ‎

It is clear that in the Islamic Republic of Iran, reformers of any color are viewed to be ‎outsiders of the system and not trustworthy by the regime to know the password to enter ‎the elections into the power structure of the country. There is no doubt about it.‎