No confidence vote in Iran?
Iranian President Ahmadinejad may be facing a no confidence vote if he acts to dismiss his Interior Minister as he is being petitioned to do so. The Interior Minister has been exposed for claiming several academic degrees that investigations have shown he does not possess. There is an article in the Iranian constitution that if 10 cabinet ministers are dismissed then the whole cabinet is subject to a confidence vote. Unfortunately for him, Ahmadinejad, has already dismissed 9 other cabinet ministers for disagreeing with his policies. If he is forced to dismiss the Interior Minister then the confidence vote provision is triggered.
The would be bad timing for Ahmadinejad as he faces pressure in the country for Iran’s economic woes which are being amplified by the drop in the price of crude oil. So far Ahmadinejad has had the support of the country’s religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has been backing the President publicly but will this continue given the growing unrest in the country and the recent revolt against the imposition of a sales tax by the bazaar store owners. No President before has ever faced a full confidence vote and the result could be interesting.
