Recently, the members of parliament of Iran were provided with the names and other information related to the proposed cabinet ministers by the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Following this, 15 ministers were approved by the MPs and 3 MPs were rejected by the members of parliament of Iran.
The reason for their rejection was attributed to their involvement in the 2009-10 election protests that were carried out all over Iran. The proposed ministers however said that they were not involved and said that they were innocent. But the other MPs failed to budge. As per a political analyst based in Iran, Sadegh Zibakalam, the members of parliament ‘mistreated’ the proposed ministers and they did not do the right thing.
Zibakalam spoke in a recent press conference that the MPs did not actually have a look at the profiles and names of the proposed ministers and simply linked them to the 2009-10 protests that were held in Iran, and the action of MPs were not at all logical or had any concrete grounds.
He added that the Iranian MPs did so as they wanted to defame the proposed ministers. This also was justified by Zibakalam that it was normal in all the countries of the world to have people protesting against elections. He was of the opinion that their involvement in the 2009-10 protests should not be linked to their candidature and they should be examined based on their profile.
Sadegh Zibakalam also diverted the focus away from protests saying that Iran is facing problems that are much more significant than the previous protests. With the unemployment rate so high, no much attention should be given to the election protests and Iran should work towards the betterment of its economy and create economic stability.
In 2009-10, there were protests for roughly 8 months and they were considered to be the worse protests held in Iran after the 1979 Revolution. During these protests, as per official statistics, 36 people were killed by the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC).