به: تئو- بن گوریراب، رئیس اتحادیه بین المجالس

Open letter to
Mr. Theo-Ben GURIRAB , President of the IPU
Dear Sir,

In March 2012, elections will be held to the Majlis in Iran, the ninth Parliamentary elections since the installation of the Islamic Republic in our country.
The Iranian Parliament is a member of the Interparliamentary Union and has therefore subscribed to the objectives set out in Article 1 of the Statutes of the IPU, inter alia to “contribute to the defence and promotion of human rights, which are universal in scope and respect for which is an essential factor of parliamentary democracy and development”.
The Iranian Parliament is also bound by the Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections adopted on 26 March 1994 by the Inter-Parliamentary Council at its 154th session, held in Paris. These criteria include in Article 3, the right:
• To express political opinions without interference;
• To seek, receive and impart information and to make an informed choice;
• To move freely within the country in order to campaign for election;
• To campaign on an equal basis with other political parties, including the party forming the existing government.
They also include equal opportunity of access to the media, particularly the mass communications media, for every candidate for election and every political party in order to put forward their political views, and the right of candidates to security with respect to their lives and property.
Under the criteria, States are committed inter alia to:
• Providing for the formation and free functioning of political parties, ensuring the separation of party and State, and establishing the conditions for competition in legislative elections on an equitable basis.
In addition, States are also committed to:
• Ensuring that those responsible for the various aspects of the election are trained and act impartially, and that coherent voting procedures are established and made known to the voting public;
• Ensuring the registration of voters, updating of electoral rolls and balloting procedures, with the assistance of national and international observers as appropriate;
• Encouraging parties, candidates and the media to accept and adopt a Code of Conduct to govern the election campaign and the polling period;
• Ensuring the integrity of the ballot through appropriate measures to prevent multiple voting or voting by those not entitled thereto;
• Ensuring the integrity of the process for counting votes.
States must also ensure:
• That freedom of movement, assembly, association and expression are respected, particularly in the context of political rallies and meetings;
• That parties and candidates are free to communicate their views to the electorate, and that they enjoy equality of access to State and public-service media;
• That the necessary steps are taken to guarantee non-partisan coverage in State and public-service media.
We are concerned that these principles will not be respected in the forthcoming elections in Iran, and that the elections will not be free and fair.

We recall that during the last Parliamentary elections, held in 2008, several of the criteria in the Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections were not respected.

Firstly, the Islamic Republic violated the right “to campaign on an equal basis with other political parties, including the party forming the existing government” as well as the state’s obligation to provide “for the formation and free functioning of political parties, ensure the separation of party and State, and establish the conditions for competition in legislative elections on an equitable basis”.

Conditions for registration of candidates were introduced according to which all candidates had to demonstrate their commitment to the Islamic Republic, the Supreme Guide and Islam (unless in the case of the latter they were members of a recognised religious minority). Almost 40% of candidates initially registered were disqualified for allegedly failing to meet these conditions. Furthermore, the final list of candidates was approved only one week before the election.

Secondly, the Islamic Republic violated the state’s obligation to “ensure that those responsible for the various aspects of the election …act impartially”, as the electoral process was supervised by a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards and army spokesman. Not surprisingly in that context, the Islamic Republic did not invite foreign observers to observe the elections.

Thirdly, the Islamic Republic violated the right of candidates to “security with respect to their lives and property”, by exposing several candidates to vitriolic attack in the media by representatives of Government and the security forces. Indeed, the massive participation as candidates in the elections of members of state-controlled militia (Basij) and retired or semi-retired members of the Revolutionary Guards contributed to an atmosphere of intimidation and personal threat for other candidates.

Likewise, the use of state media to attack opposition candidates violated the state’s duty to “guarantee non-partisan coverage in State and public-service media”.

We could cite many other examples.

Since 2008, the political situation in Iran has become even more difficult. The Presidential election of 2009, for which the campaign was conducted in an atmosphere of relative openness, ended in a travesty of democracy with the real winners of the election under house arrest, a hundred people killed during demonstrations, a dozen political prisoners executed and thousands of people, including many ordinary citizens, imprisoned and tortured. Repression in Iran is now worse than at any period in the last quarter-century and may now have reached the murderous levels of the early 1980s.

All indications are that the Islamic Republic has no intention of relaxing the crackdown on freedom of expression which shook it to its foundations in 2009 and which, were it to be given free reign, would certainly again show the frustration of the Iranian people after thirty years of dictatorship.

On the contrary, the régime is likely to seek even tighter control of the Parliamentary elections in 2012 than of the 2008 elections.

We call on the international community, therefore, to exercise its influence on the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to prevent the 2012 elections being hijacked by the régime. In particular, the Interparliamentary Union should demand an end to executions and to torture, the release of political prisoners and restoration the freedom of association and of expression as necessary preconditions for the holding of elections in the country.

Furthermore, the Interparliamentary Union should adopt a resolution calling for the sending of international long-term and short-term observers to observe these elections. If the Islamic Republic does not accept IPU or other international observers, the Majlis should be suspended from participation in all IPU meetings.

In the meantime, in light of the human rights violations referred to above, the representative of the Islamic Republic should be expelled from the Human Rights Committee of your organisation.

It is time for the international community to stand firm in defence of the democratic principles to which all its members have subscribed.

Yours sincerely,

Organisation of Iranian People’s Fadaian (Majority)
Political and Executive Committee
Behruz Khaligh
behruzkhaligh@gmail.com


- Contact in Belgium : Ali Samad Pouri
alisamadpouri@yahoo.fr