Document Type : Research Article:Social history and research on parliament in Iran (Guest editor: Dr. Morteza Nouraei)

Author

• Sirvan Khosrozade

PHD of history of Islamic Iran Payame noor university and Independent Researcher.Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Following the coup d'état of August 19, 1953, a period of stagnation and limitation reigned over the country's political space. Therefore, the promise of holding free elections by Mohammad Reza Shah on the threshold of the 20 th Parliament elections in 1940 was considered an important turning point, and freedom seekers hoped to influence the country's political destiny through free elections. Volunteers started working in Sanandaj inspired by shah's promises. Based on the unpublished documents of the Islamic Parliament Library, this article tries to answer the question of how the quality of the Sanandaj elections was held in the 20th to 22nd periods of the National Assembly and how the election candidates reacted to the results.? The findings show that not only was the claim of free elections baseless, but also in Sanandaj, as in some parts of the country, the elections of the 20th parliament were the beginning of a new chapter of violations and illegal actions by the government, which in the following periods also continued. article also shows that as a result of the 20-22 parliamentary election violations, Ezzatullah Shadi Moghadam and Naser Yamin Mardokhi were strongly opposed to the results of the elections of these periods, and in a continuous but unsuccessful effort, tried to convince the shah and the government to change the result of the election.

Keywords

• Pahlavi period
• elections
• Ezzatullah Shadi Moghadam
• Naser Yamin Mardokhi
• Sanandaj

Main Subjects

• Social history and research on parliament in Iran

Extended Abstract

Evaluation of election violations of the 20-22nd assemblies of the National Council (1960-1967)

Case study: Sanandaj city

Following The coup d'état of August 19, 1953, the political open space of the Twenties came to an end and the activities of political parties and groups were limited. In 1960, the Shah was pressured to carry out social political reforms for reasons such as American political developments and Kennedy's positions, so he promised free elections, but at the same time it was announced that the National Front and the Tudeh party did not have the right to participate in the elections! The Shah tried to give his government a democratic face by establishing parties affiliated with him, and perhaps to gain the satisfaction of his American critics. However, this point of view has also been raised that considering that the landlords held an average of 56% of the seats in the parliament from 1941 to 1961, the Shah had decided to end their power in the parliament little by little. It meant that he intended to replace them with the parties affiliated to the court. It happened that on the eve of the elections of the 20th Parliament, two parties, the Melliun and the Mardom (people) Party, were established and competed for the majority of the parliament.On the other hand, court-affiliated parties such as the Melliun Party and the Toudeh Party were established and competed with each other to win the majority of the parliament.

 The current research is trying to investigate the quality and manner of holding elections in the 20th to 22nd periods of the National Assembly in Sanandaj by relying on the unpublished documents of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and then examine the reactions of election candidates protesting the results of the elections and show what results these protests finally led to.

The elections of the 20th period of the National Assembly were held in the summer of 1961 (summer elections), but the volume of violations and frauds was so high that the Shah was forced to dissolve the parliament and hold elections again in the winter (winter elections). But this time, the previous violations were repeated and the Shah was forced to announce the dissolution of the new parliament. In the summer elections, on the same day of the elections, Kayhan newspaper announced Reza Asif and Abbasqoli Ardalan as representatives of Sanandaj! In the winter elections, Abbasqoli Ardalan and Salar Saeed were announced as representatives of Sanandaj.

Ezzatullah Shadi Moghadam, one of the Sanandaj election candidates, who had participated in the elections in every summer and winter period, strongly protested the results of the elections and by presenting documents indicating the unfavorable quality of the elections and various violations, he tried to make the Shah and the government He was convinced to change the declared result, but his efforts were unsuccessful. After the dissolution of the 20th Parliament in the spring of 1961, the parliament was closed for the next two and a half years, and finally, in August 1963, the elections of the 21st period of the National Assembly were held. In this period, Seyyed Mehdi Sheikhul Islami and engineer Hoshang Kamangar were announced as representatives of Sanandaj, and Nasser Yamin Mardokhi, who was the first contender for the parliamentary elections, became the third.

Yamin Mardokhi started massive protests and showed by citing various documents that numerous violations occurred in the elections and that he is the real representative of Sanandaj. Yamin Mardokhi's continuous efforts were unsuccessful and he tried to be elected as a representative of Sanandaj in the 22nd period elections, but in the elections of this period, which were held in August 1967, Seyyed Mohammad Sheikhul-Islami and Mohammad usoli were elected. Became. Yamin Mardokhi's strong protests and statements were still useless. The findings of the research indicate that contrary to the Shah's promise of free elections, the holding of the elections as in the past was full of violations and fraud. As a result of the elections of the periods in question, Ezzatullah Shadi Moghadam strongly objected to the results of the summer and winter elections of the 20th period, and Naser Yamin Mardokhi, who participated in the elections of the 21st and 22nd periods, strongly objected to the announced results. These two tried to have the election result revised by presenting various documents and correspondence to the shah and parliament, etc, but their efforts were completely useless. It should be said about the violations committed, although it cannot be said for sure that their victorious rivals were directly supported by the Shah and the court and were elected on their recommendation, but it must be acknowledged that the violations and interferences by government agents in favor of the victorious candidates and to the detriment of Shadi Moghadam and Yamin They had a decisive impact on the election results. Among these violations, we can mention the colorful presence of rival candidates' relatives in the Election Monitoring Association, and also threatening the people that if they do not vote for the candidates close to the government, they will be prosecuted by SAVAK.

Key words: Pahlavi period, elections, Ezzatullah Shadi Moghadam, Naser Yamin Mardokhi, Sanandaj.