Iran Elections Now In Doubt

Iranian reformists accused conservatives Monday of employing totalitarian tactics and said they were considering boycotting next month's legislative elections in frustration with a deepening political crisis.

The Guardian Council, a powerful, unelected body that supervises elections, on Sunday vetoed legislation seeking to curb its powers and force it to reverse its disqualifications of thousands of candidates in next month's election.

The government hinted Monday that it would not hold the elections if those disqualifications were not overturned.

"The government will continue its activities to help form conditions for fair, free and competitive elections ... existence of competition is the main condition for holding the elections," the Iranian Cabinet said in a statement.

Students said they planned mass protests against the hard-liners in what has become Iran's worst political crisis in years.

"Students will join professors of all universities in Tehran today to support disqualified prospective hopefuls and denounce hard-liners who are restricting people's choice," reformist student leader Hossein Baqeri said Monday.

The Guardian Council veto likely will provoke a boycott of the Feb. 20 parliamentary elections as reformists have warned they would not participate in polls where more than a third of the candidates were prevented from running.

"The rejection means there is no will on the part of hard-liners to resolve the political crisis through logical methods. It only pushes reformist lawmakers to harden their position and seriously consider mass resignations and boycotting the polls," said Mohsen Armin, a prominent reformist lawmaker and one of those disqualified.

President Mohammad Khatami's administration, he added, "is expected to seriously consider not holding the elections if things don't change."

The bill passed by parliament sought to overturn the disqualification of more than a third of the 8,200 candidates — including more than 80 reformist sitting lawmakers — who registered for the elections. Hard-liners claim the disqualified candidates failed to meet the legal criteria.

Reformers believe the conservatives are trying to tilt the elections so they will regain control of the 290-seat parliament. In the 2000 polls, the hard-liners lost the majority in the assembly for the first time since the 1979 revolution.

Leading reformists announced the veto and the Guardian Council issued a statement Monday confirming it, state-run Tehran radio reported.

Another disqualified reformist legislator, Fatemeh Haqiqatjou, told The Associated Press that with its veto, "the Guardian Council effectively pushes the country toward greater political chaos.

"The rejection brings reformers and all those who want free and fair elections closer to boycotting the elections," Haqiqatjou said. "Iranians never allow dictators to decide for them."

In a session broadcast live on state radio Sunday, legislators voted by standing to approve the bill. They categorized it as "triple-urgent," meaning highest priority — the first time since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that parliament has approved such a bill.

The bill would have amended the National Elections law to force the Guardian Council to reinstate all of the more than 2,700 disqualified candidates unless there was legal documentation proving them unfit for parliament.

The council's members are chosen by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has asked the body to reconsider its disqualifications. The council has reinstated only a few hundred candidates — a slow response that has angered reformists, who say it does not act without the supreme leader's approval.

On Friday, Khatami and parliamentary speaker Mahdi Karroubi warned that unless the disqualifications were withdrawn, there would be no liberal candidates in more than two-thirds of the electoral districts.

By Ali Akbar Dareini