Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced that he is prepared to be questioned by Parliament in advance of the March 2 parliamentary elections.
A group of MPs has been working hard over the past few months to get the president to appear before Parliament to be questioned on a series of irregularities in his conduct and that of his administration.
IRNA reported on Wednesday that the president’s representative in Parliament, Mohammadreza Mirtajedini, said: “The president is prepared to appear in Parliament starting next week to respond to questions from the MPs.”
The motion to question the president has been months in the making but it has faced repeated obstacles. While some MPs are convinced that the president needs to be questioned on certain issues, other are worried that he might use the platform to make scandalous statements that would harm the establishment.
This is the first time the Iranian Parliament has ever summoned a president for questioning. The suggested questions cover a range of subjects, including: irregularities in the delivery of funds for the Tehran subway; ambiguities in employment statistics, and the president’s reluctance to follow the Supreme Leader’s decision to reinstate Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi.
