Ahmadinejad supporters in Qom denounce Head of Parliament

Speaker of Iran's Parliament, Ali Larijani

A number of supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad government in Qom issued a statement claiming they no longer regard Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Parliament, as their representative at the parliament and they want their votes back.

ILNA reports that the statement was distributed following the Friday Mass prayers and is signed, “People of Hezbollah.”

Ali Larijani, who is the representative of the city of Qom in the Parliament, has been questioned over his stance regarding the recent disputes over the control of Iran’s Azad University.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been introducing a number of bills to the parliament in order to take control of Iran’s nationwide private university.

Azad Univeristy has been linked with the reformist camp of the Islamic Republic for long and Ahmadinejad’s recent attempts at changing its board members and limiting the control of its reformist administration was stifled by the parliament.

Last week, Ahmadinejad supporters staged protests in front of the parliament threatening the assembly and especially criticized the speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani for resisting Ahmadinejad’s bills.

The signatories of the statement distributed in Qom identify themselves as “a large number of seminarians, students and people” who have, as they write, “mistakenly” voted for Ali Larijani.

While Ali Larijani is considered to be in the conservative camp of the Islamic Republic, the statement accuses him of “having good relations with reformists and antagonistic toward Revolutionary MPs.”

The statement addresses Larijani alleging: “It is said that you voted for Mr. Ahmadinejad’s opponent.”

In the past year, Iran has been thrown in turmoil over allegation of fraud in the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whose opponents, MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi refuse to accept the legitimacy of his government.

The protests have created numerous cracks in the Islamic Republic establishment that has manifested itself in more ways that the reformist versus the conservative camp.

The conservative camp has also become gradually factionalized which has been most evident in the disputes between the Parliament and the Ahmadinejad administration.