Conservatives are putting system at risk

The Iranian election that led to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government declaring victory over moderate opposition candidate Mir Hussain Mousavi has led to widespread doubts about the role of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In Iran, the post of Supreme Leader combines both ultimate religious authority and an over-arching supervisory role of the government's actions.

Khamenei was named to the post in 1989 after the death of Iran's founding leader, Ruhollah Khomeini.

For 20 years, Khamenei managed to remain neutral on party rivalries. But after this election, Khamenei has taken a firmly partisan position by openly backing Ahmadinejad.

While this has given the conservatives a powerful boost in the short term, in the longer term there are serious dangers for the Islamic Republic now that Khamenei has delved into party politics.

This has reignited the debate about the position's validity. After Khomeini's death, many Iranians did not think that anyone should succeed him.

They argued that the position of Supreme Leader should be done away with, and that the country should continue with just a president and prime minister.

In the long term, it will not be possible to simply suppress the huge volume of opinion that has been articulated by Mousavi and his supporters. For the Islamic Republic to succeed, it has to be able to accommodate moderate politics as well as conservative ideas.

One unexpected consequence of what happened last week is that the country's Constitution is now being questioned by many Iranians, who find themselves disenfranchised by the system.

If the conservatives in charge of the system do not make changes to accommodate the moderates, they will put the whole structure at risk.