Iranian Electoral Crisis Defused

04/02/2004| IslamWeb

A hardline watchdog is to reinstate some reformist candidates it had barred from standing in this month's parliamentary election. The decision was arrived at in an attempt to resolve Iran's worst political crisis in years, reformist lawmakers said in Tehran on Wednesday. "It seems that they are going to qualify some of the rejected candidates," one of the legislators said. "They are trying to reach a compromise," said another. The lawmakers said the compromise deal emerged from talks on Tuesday involving top officials including Supreme Leader Ayat Allah Ali Khamenei and reformist President Muhammad Khatami. Following the deal, the reformist MPs decided to call off their four-week sit-in at Parliament, our correspondent reported. **Climax*** With the dispute over the 20 February election appearing to be nearing a climax, lawmakers had said on Tuesday Khamenei, who has a final say on all state matters, had rejected government calls for the vote to be postponed. Khatami's reformist government is outraged by the move by the Guardian Council - an unelected oversight body dominated by religious hardliners - to bar more than 2000 aspiring candidates from standing in the election. They were accused of lack of respect for Islam and the constitution. Most of those barred are reformist allies of Khatami, including more than 80 current members of the 290-seat parliament. The move plunged the Islamic republic, riven by hostility between reformists and conservatives, into probably its worst crisis since the revolution that overthrew the Shah 25 years ago. About 125 reformist MPs handed in their resignations, threatening to deprive the Majlis of a quorum, along with all of the country's provincial governors. Besides, officials of the pro-reform interior ministry refused to organise polls that were not free, fair and competitive. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei refused to immediately intervene in a mounting political crisis stemming from the mass disqualification of reformist candidates from forthcoming parliamentary elections. (AFP/File/Atta Kenare)