TEHRAN: A former speaker of Parliament has denounced reports that Iranian MPs are being offered government cash to vote against impeaching the interior minister, who lied about his education, the Mehr news agency said yesterday.
“God save us from money being given to a deputy asking him to vote for or against someone or for or against a bill,” said Gholam-Ali Hadad Adel, who headed Parliament from 2004 until he stepped down earlier this year.
Hadad Adel’s remarks come two days after a stormy incident in Parliament, in which media reported that a conservative deputy slapped the government’s parliamentary representative, accusing him of vote buying. According to the reports, MPs were being offered checks for 50 million rials ($5,215), ostensibly for the upkeep of mosques in their districts. However, they were asked to sign an undertaking not to vote to censure Interior Minister Ali Kordan.
Parliament will vote Tuesday whether to impeach Kordan for “dishonesty” after he confessed to holding a fake Oxford University degree. Kordan, who only took office in August, has been under pressure to resign after the British university denied awarding him any qualification through a representative, as he had claimed.
