30 MPs disqualified from Iran polls

[Ulhas Joglekar]

10 January 2000
30 MPs disqualified from Iran polls
TEHERAN: At least 30 MPs are among dozens of reformers banned from running
in Iran's crucial parliamentary elections next month, newspapers said on
Sunday.
The Daily Iran, run by the state news agency IRNA, said among those
disqualified by the Guardian Council, an elections supervisory body
controlled by conservative clerics, were many close allies of President
Mohammad Khatami and liberal dissidents.
It said the council had notified the Interior Ministry of the list of
rejected candidates, though their names would not be published unless
formally requested by those whose candidacies were rejected.
Newspapers said between 30 and 50 deputies in the present Parliament, which
has 270 seats, had been barred from seeking re-election.
Several rejected MPs said they were still waiting for final confirmation
before they made any comments.
"I don't have any problems to be rejected. If they have disqualified me they
had better back it up with written proof," one deputy said.
Under a law recently passed by Parliament, the Guardian Council has to
provide written proof for any rejections and hear complaints from
disqualified candidates.
A record 6,860 would-be candidates had signed up to contend for seats,
encouraged by the mood for political participation under President Khatami.
Khatami's interior ministry had already cleared more than 95 percent of them
to run, but candidates also needed to be approved by the Guardian Council,
which vets candidates to keep non-conformists out of Iran's powerful
institutions.
Khatami's allies were hoping to use the President's enduring popularity to
break the conservative grip on the assembly and clear opposition to his
liberal social and political reforms.
"If the authoritarians (conservatives) dominate the next Parliament with the
help of the (Guardian Council), this will not face the reform movement with
a dead-end," said Sobh-e Emrouz, the leading reformist daily.
"The next elections are not the end. They are only a stage in the historical
process toward pluralism and justice," it added.
In an open letter to President Mohammad Khatami, more than 30 reformist
leaders voiced concern last week over new rules imposed by the Guardian
Council which could prevent all but the most devoted revolutionaries from
running in the polls.
But Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledged on Saturday that
the law would be upheld, rejecting charges from reformers that they were
being discriminated against.
"Some people make accusations against legal institutions... The criteria is
the law, not (political) tendencies. All will be duty-bound to respect the
law and act accordingly," he said.
A spokesman for the Guardian Council said last week many entrants had an
"inferior value system," or criminal backgrounds, including links to the
SAVAK, the former shah's dreaded secret police. (Reuters)
For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
|Disclaimer|
For comments and feedback send Email
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 1999.