The Elections of the Universal House of Justice

 

There is little or nothing “spiritual” about Baha’i administration. It is simply a “modernist” facade on backwardness!

Baha’i Elections: Confused?

The Universal House of Justice is head of the Baha’i Faith. Its permanent seat is at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, and all members reside here for the duration of their service.

The regular election of the nine members of the House of Justice occurs every five years at an international convention, held in Haifa. The most recent election was in 2008.

Till date there have been 10 elections (‘63,’68.’73,’78,’83,’88,’93, 98,’03, and ‘08) of UHJ. There have been five by-elections, in 1982, 1987, 2000, 2005 and 2010.

Amoz Gibson, Charles Wolcott, and Adib Taherzadeh died while serving. The other 13 former members were allowed by the House to resign, presumably for personal reasons of health and/or age. Five members (Hakim, Kavelin, Hofman, Chance, Ruhe and Peter Khan) have died after their retirement, while the other eight former members are alive, as of July 2011.

The previous change in membership was when two other members chose to retire in 2007. There was no by-election since they stayed on until the regular election scheduled for April 2008. Since the House of Justice is elected every 5 years, it seems that Dunbar and Khan decided to leave ‘early’ rather than wait another few years until April 2013.

Hartmut Grossmann and Glenford E. Mitchell were replaced by Shahriar Razavi and Gustavo Correa – both members of the ITC (naturally).

THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT, THOUGH, IS THAT, “THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE BODY HAS ONLY SEEN CHANGE DUE TO DEATH OR RETIREMENT: NO MEMBER HAS EVER BEEN ELECTED OFF THE UHJ.”

This clearly indicates that a SELECTION PROCESS is operating behind the scene.

A-UHJ membership and International Teaching Centre:

1-The most important trend is that we have, since 2008, a membership drawn completely from the ITC – which itself is appointed by the Universal House of Justice. So in essence, there is a closed loop with the UHJ appointing its future candidates. This also shows that ITC acts as screening committee for future UHJ members.

2-By having UHJ members constantly elected from the ITC, it is almost a type of silent campaigning going on. These individuals are given a visible role in front of NSA’s whereas any normal Baha’i out there would never stand a chance to be known. This guarantees no fresh blood- new Baha’is who are outside of the loop of administration who could possibly bring in a different perspective. Hence you only get people who are inside the system who will perpetuate the same thought patterns. And you get these people because they are the only ones paraded in front of the NSA’s!

3-These special group of people (ITC) are given a platform where they and only they are seen right there and then by a group of people who are about to vote. No other Baha’i, no matter how great his/her service, will ever have that same opportunity to be seen. This is done with a purpose. What happens is that the selection of a group of people that are called future members of House of Justice? This SELECTION PROCESS is called as DIVINELY ORDAINED ELECTION!

4- The members of the ITC are in fact given a geographic mandate, just like the UHJ members themselves, and travel extensively to meet with the NSA’s around the world. They also meet with other parts of the administration and the community at times to give speeches, attend events, etc.

5-Being on the ITC gives an unparalleled platform for visibility and access to NSA’s – (Vote Bank!!). Appointment on ITC is also an indication to the electors that the House is keen in electing these people only.

6-The UHJ election process is obviously fixed. The ITC members are pre-screened for ideological purity and are then provided with unparalleled exposure which obviates the need for explicit campaigning.

B-UHJ membership and Iranians

C-ANALYSIS

1-Till today there are 25 members who have been elected on UHJ for different duration, out of which 8 members are of Iranian origin. This amounts to 31.5% which is reasonable very high for just one country. The Cradle of the Faith gets priority!!The present UHJ has 4 Iranian members and the percentage is 44%.

2-The total number of years by all the 25 members who have served on UHJ is 431 years out of which the 8 Iranian members share is 135 years which comes out to be again 31.3 %. Strange coincidence, isn’t it?

3-When comparison of Iranian Baha’i population with respect to World Baha’i population is done it is again found to be 30%, which puts everything in its proper perspective. (30,000 Iranian Baha’is against 1, 00000 total Baha’i populations.)

Till today there have been 26 members from International Teaching Centre, out of which 6 were Iranians .Percentage 23%.

If we take account of all the members of NSAs of the world, the percentage of Iranian Baha’is on the NSAs of different countries will be approximately between 25% to 30%.

Even for the 85 continental board of Counselors appointed all over the world, the percentage of Iranian counselors will be near the same percentage.

CONCLUSION:

Baha’i administration is deeply anti-democratic and anti-progressive.

In reality these members, who rise to the top of Haifan Baha’i Administration are only proficient and successful at one thing: perpetuating dysfunctional organizational culture, lies and abuse of authority. For example, Mr.Payman Mohajir (of Iranian background) has propagated that by 2021 there will be 50 million Baha’is all over the world. An extreme case of delusion.

There is little or nothing “spiritual” about Baha’i administration. It is simply a “modernist” facade on backwardness!

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