Sara Samavati ‎

Mohammad Atrianfar, member of the Kargozaran-e Sazandegi [Servants of Construction] ‎party’s central council, believes that the eight Majlis elections [held in March] were ‎‎“very, very engineered favoring the principalists.” Below is the text of this interview. ‎

Rooz (R): Mr. Atrianfar, what happened when the votes were being counted?‎

Mohammad Atrianfar (MA): Nothing happened. Elections took place in a very, very ‎engineered manner favoring the principalists [or idealogues as they are known] and ‎which were very successful for them!‎

R: Do the results conform with your predictions? ‎

MA: We expected this, given the events leading up to the elections and the ‎disqualifications. ‎

R: But now you may face the question, particularly from groups that boycotted the ‎elections for these very reasons: what was your reason for participating in these ‎elections? ‎

MA: If we had not participated, even these few reformists who managed to get in would ‎not have been elected to the Majlis. In these elections, the contest was not over power, ‎but over identity. We knew that we would not be able to achieve power through these ‎elections. We still believe that the Iranian society, if allowed to choose, will choose the ‎way of reform. Now, powerful institutions have deprived the public of voicing their ‎demands through elections. However, in the coming years, these demands will quickly ‎resurface, and will require some kind of a response. In general, there is no other way ‎than to participate in elections. If a powerful minority faction forms – which seems very ‎likely at this point – it can affect the lawmaking process. ‎

R: Mr. Atrianfar, some people raise this question: what did this minority faction do in the ‎seventh Majlis so that one may expect anything better from this new Majlis? In other ‎words, what guarantee is there that this silent minority faction will become influential? ‎

MA: In the next Majlis, this minority faction will be present with more determination. ‎They are determined to defend the way of reforms and our ideals. In our opinion, ‎because they have a stronger determination, they can perform more effectively than the ‎minority faction in the current Majlis and achieve some of their goals, specially since ‎many conservatives who are critical of the administration have won seats in the eight ‎Majlis, which they can be of help to the reformist faction, and stand up to the radical ‎policies that are pursued by the administration. ‎

R: Is this a new discourse among the reformists? The realization that reformists must ‎cooperate with moderate conservatives? ‎

MA: Yes. The reformist-conservative duality has been disrupted in Iran. A new duality ‎has formed in Iran, the radical-pragmatic duality, or the moderation-violence duality. We ‎can cooperate with more moderate conservatives who belonged to the opposite camp ‎until recently. ‎

R: Can you provide a clear example?‎

MA: Yes. If today someone like Ali Larijani runs for a seat in Qom and becomes elected ‎and wins a seat in the Majlis, such a person will most definitely criticize Mr. ‎Ahmadinejad’s radical policies in the Majlis. He will criticize them and stand up to ‎them. Certainly the viewpoints of people like Larijani will be supported by reformists. ‎

R: What do you plan to do with the radicalism that is present in the body of the reformist ‎movement, which does not tolerate cooperation with conservatives (even moderate ‎ones)?‎

MA: The percentage of such forces is not high among reformists. Moreover, we saw the ‎results of their radical policies during Mr. Khatami’s era. Things will not get solved in ‎Iran like that. We have no way other than to pursue a policy of moderation, tolerance, ‎cooperation and peace. We have to pursue our goals in steps and with tactics. ‎Radicalism, whether in the right wing or the left wing, in the position that Iran is today, is ‎completely useless. ‎