Office for the Cooperation of the People with the President | |
Leader: | Abolhassan Banisadr |
Abbreviation: | OCPP |
Foundation: | December 1979 |
Dissolved: | 1981 |
Ideology: | Islamic liberalism Islamic socialism Iranian nationalism |
Position: | Centre-left[1] |
Newspaper: | Enghelabe Eslami |
Religion: | Islam |
Country: | Iran |
Office for the Cooperation of the People with the President (Persian: دفتر هماهنگی همکاریهای مردم با رئیسجمهور) was a political organization in Iran that was closely associated to then-President Abolhassan Banisadr.[2]
Since Banisadr was skeptical of partisan activities in Iran, he did not like the idea of creating a party. However, despite using the name "office", the organization "was created out of necessity to fulfill some, if not all, of the functions of a political party".[3] It had branches all over the country.[2]
OCPP issued an electoral list for the 1980 Iranian legislative election,[2] that had candidates shared with the Freedom Movement, the National Front and the People's Mujahedin.[4] The exclusive candidates of OCPP included Fathollah Banisadr (his brother), Mohammad Moballeghi-Eslami (Banisadr's choice for Channel 2) and Mohammad Ja'fari (editor-in-chief of Enghelabe Eslami). Ahmad Salamatian and Ahmad Ghazanfarpour were notable members elected to the parliament under banner of the organization.[2]
According to Houchang Chehabi, the group formed a minority in the parliament.[2] Siavush Randjbar-Daemi estimates that they were less than a dozen deputies, however initially some forty independents were also "ostensibly sympathetic to Banisadr".