Masoud Dalvand
–TDO-(AMERICA) The People’s
Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI, (the Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK) held its
annual Congress simultaneously in Tirana and five other countries. On the
PMOI’s 52nd anniversary, the Congress elected Ms. Zahra Merrikhi as its new
Secretary General. Ms. Zohreh Akhyani, the Secretary General since 2011,
chaired the Congress.
According to the PMOI’s bylaws, the Secretary
General is elected to a renewable term of two years. The election is held in
three phases. In the first phase, members of the PMOI Central Council, and in
the second the organization’s officials and cadres in different departments,
cast their votes in secret ballots. In the third phase, at the PMOI Congress,
all members vote by raising their hands.
In the first phase, on August 20, 2017, Ms.Merrikhi was elected from among 12 candidates by a majority of the Central
Council members. The four leading candidates were put on the ballot for the
second phase, which was held on September 3, 2017. Ms. Merrikhi received a
majority of the votes cast in ten different PMOI centers. In the final phase,
during the PMOI Congress, Ms. Merrikhi was unanimously elected Secretary
General.
Previously, Ms. Merrikhi was coordinator for
the offices of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Councilof Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and Vice-President of the PMOI’s Central Council.
Born in 1959 in the city of Qa’emshahr in the
northern Province of Mazandaran, Ms. Merrikhi became acquainted with the PMOI
during the 1979 anti-Monarchic Revolution and joined the PMOI after the Shah’s
overthrow. She was soon appointed head of the women’s section in Qa’emshahr,
and later became a member of the editorial board of the PMOI publication in
Mazandaran, called Talavang.
In 1981, she was transferred to Tehran and
acted as liaison between the PMOI and its branches in the forests of northern
Iran. In 1984, she moved to PMOI bases in the border region with Iraq, and a
year later became a member of the Central Council.
Her younger brother, Ali Merrikhi, was
murdered by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in 1988.
Ms. Merrikhi oversaw PMOI branches in
Scandinavia and Germany for some time. In 1991, she became a member of the
Executive Committee and was later appointed head of Radio Mojahed, Simay-e
Moghavemat (the Iranian Resistance’s television network) and the publication
Mojahed.
She became a member of the NCRI in 1992 and
was appointed Chairwoman of the Public Affairs Committee.
Ms. Merrikhi had been the coordinator of the
offices of Mrs. Rajavii since 2003 and the Vice-president of the PMOI’s Central
Council since 2004.
Following her election as Secretary General,
Mrs. Merrikhi was sworn in, placing her hand on the Holy Quran and paying her
respects to the Iranian flag and PMOI emblem. She pledged to remain faithful to
the enormous responsibilities with which she has been entrusted. Ms. Merrikhi
vowed to devote all her abilities and those of the PMOI as a national treasure
of the Iranian people, to establish freedom and democracy in Iran.
The new Secretary General expressed her
appreciation for the efforts of her predecessor, Ms. Akhyani, and Ms. Mojgan
Parsai, the President of the PMOI’s Central Council. She lauded their efforts
and those of other PMOI officials over the past 14 years, during one of the most
dangerous and tortuous periods of the Organizations history in camps Ashraf and
Liberty.
“Today, the PMOI, with the help of the Iranian
people, is prepared as never before to overthrow the clerical regime,” Ms.
Merrikhi said, adding that the PMOI has now 18 co-Secretaries General
(including seven former Secretaries General). Ms. Merrikhi also introduced
Narges Azodanlou, 36, Rabi’eh Mofidi, 35, and Nasrin Massih, 39, as new
deputies to the Secretary General.
congratulating the election of Ms. Merrikhi as the new PMOI
Secretary General, Mrs. Rajavi described it as a brilliant election, embodying
the height of democracy, cohesion, and growth in the PMOI. It heralds the
breaking of the spell of repression which will lead to the overthrow of the
religious fascism ruling Iran, she added.
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