Speaking to Khabar Online's Majlis correspondent today, Bahonar suggested that the popularity of Larijani is the result of his decisive acts in the Parliament. Majlis Speaker earlier won more than 60% of votes in the religious city of Qom.
He commented on the new round of Majlis formed after the election of March 2, 2012 when 3444 candidates had been vetted for the poll: "The general line-up of the 9th Majlis is similar to the 8th Majlis. The number of reformist lawmakers has been reduced a little, however about 30 reformist MPs will be present in the parliament."
Iran’s Interior Ministry had previously disqualified many registered candidates almost those who had criticized the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Many reformists, among them the incumbent members of the Majlis were disqualified by the Interior Ministry to run for the parliamentary election, although several of them were later vetted by the Guardian Council.
As the vice-speaker of Principalists parliamentary group, Bahonar said the faction will represent various tendencies: "We witnessed the same situation in the 8th Majlis as the current numbers of the Resistance Front of the Islamic Revolution formed the Islamic Revolution parliamentary group and we should wait and see under which title they will attend the 9th Majlis.
The Resistance Front of the Islamic Revolution is a faction comprised of former backers of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad including the ministers he dismissed in recent years.
According to him, the principalist parliamentary faction of the upcoming Majlis will be divided into three separate factions which through their interaction can assist the top legislative body.
"They can cooperate with each other and when become involved in a political dispute or those resulted from different viewpoints, they should comply with the majority vote cast in an open session of the Majlis," the senior lawmaker said.
Bahonar who formed development and justice parliamentary group in the 8th Islamic Republic of Iran's Parliament deemed any prediction on the continuation of his parliamentary group premature.
"It is predicted that the two division, the Resistance Front of the Islamic Revolution and the Unified Front of Principalists set up separate parliamentary groups and micro political, specialized factions as their subsets," he added.
Responding to a question, the representative of Tehran in the Majlis said the possibility of forming a parliamentary group comprising the members of the Pathfinders of the Islamic Revolution faction simply depends on the views of the members.
However, the vice-speaker of Principalists parliamentary group did not reject the possibility of separating the role of Majlis Speaker with the Principalists parliamentary group speaker, both played by Larijani at the moment.
"The Majlis is the symbol of collective ration and no one can decide about it from outside. So, the lawmakers should themselves take the decision and be committed to collective ration," he said.
As he pointed out, the concurrent leading of the Majlis and the Principalists parliamentary group brought a number of advantages because Larijani used his popularity to make all lawmakers to interact with each other and his views were comprehensive and solid.
281