World

Confusion Precedes Iran Vote

February 22, 1999 / 1:42 PM EST / AP

A hard-line Iranian election board has disqualified 50 moderate candidates from this week's local elections, state media reported Monday.

Most were rejected on grounds of having questionable loyalty to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, head of the hard-line faction in the Islamic government. Others were accused of "having suspect records from the past," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Friday's municipal elections are the first local polls since the 1979 Islamic revolution, which installed the clergy's rule in Iran.

The polls have become a contest between the hard-liners and supporters of Iran's popular reformist president, Mohammad Khatami.

Close to 330,000 candidates are contesting more than 200,000 posts to manage local government affairs in cities, towns and villages.

Although the number of disqualified candidates is small, most are well known moderates, including former interior minister, Abdollah Nouri and student leader Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, newspapers reported.

It is also unclear if the disqualifications, ordered by the Central Supervision Board, are legal since they were issued after a Feb. 16 deadline.

Observers said the supervisory board was either bending the rules or simply trying to intimidate voters.

"I think it's clear that the rightists have realized that their candidates will do very badly at the polls," said Saeed Leylaz, a political analyst who writes for several Iranian newspapers.

"What they are trying to do is to confuse the people, to make them lose heart so that they will not show up to vote," he said in an interview.

The municipal councils have little power, but hard-liners fear that the moderates could make them more powerful.

In previous elections for Parliament and the presidency, many moderate candidates were disqualified by hard-liners trying to maintain their hold on power.