Iran election tensions increase
Monday, 26 January, 2004
BBC News
A row over Iran's elections next months is escalating, with reformists condemning a conservative veto of a bill to resolve the political crisis.
MPs said the veto would make a boycott of 20 February elections more likely and lead to greater political chaos.
The Guardians Council rejected Sunday's bill, which sought to overturn a ban on thousands of reformist candidates in the elections.
Analysts say MPs must decide whether to submit the bill to a higher body.
The Expediency Council, headed by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, is meant to mediate in disputes between the parliament and the Guardians' Council.
Mass protests
Reformists have said that they would boycott an election in which more than a third of candidates were prevented from running.
The unelected 12-member Guardians Council, which vets candidates for office, reinstated about 350 of the banned candidates after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a review.
Students are also planning to organise mass protests to denounce hardliners.
"Students will join professors of all universities in Tehran today to support disqualified prospective hopefuls and denounce hardliners who are restricting people's choice," said student leader Hossein Baqeri.
Reformist MP Mohsen Armin said the Guardians Council had shown that it had no will to resolve the crisis logically.
"It only pushes reformist MPs to harden their position and seriously consider mass resignations and boycotting the polls," he said.
He said that President Mohammad Khatami would consider not holding the elections if more candidates were not re-instated.
Crisis
The Guardians Council set off what correspondents say is Iran's worst political crisis for years when it barred more than 3,500 mostly reformist candidates from the election.
Under the bill put forward on Sunday, those approved for past elections would have been able to run again unless there was strong evidence to prove they were unfit.
The BBC's Miranda Eeles in Tehran says MPs hoped to add two clauses to the election law, effectively forcing the Guardians Council to reverse its rulings.
The first amendment would have allowed all sitting members of parliament or candidates approved for past elections to run for office unless legal documents proved their incompetence.
The second was aimed at eliminating politically motivated disqualifications by requiring the Guardians Council to approve anyone deemed by local trustees to be loyal to Islam and the ruling Islamic establishment.
Mr Khatami, a reformist, has hardened his stance on the row.
On Saturday, he issued a joint statement with parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi demanding that the Guardians Council make a "full review" of their blacklist.
The Guardians Council has promised to check all the disqualifications and issued revised judgements by 30 January.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3430487.stm