Iranians Protest Election Limits

Dozens of reformist lawmakers who were barred by hard-liners from running in February legislative elections protested with a sit-in on Sunday as President Mohammad Khatami vowed to fight the "senseless" rulings.

Under Iran's constitution, the unelected Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog controlled by hard-liners, vets would-be candidates in elections and can disqualify any it wishes.

Key members of the 12-seat council had vowed to disqualify many reformers who have opposed the absolute rule of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who hand-picks the council's members.

According to the official Islamic Republic News Agency, over 80 incumbent lawmakers, all key reformers, have been barred from seeking another term. Parliament members say about 900 of the 1,700 hopefuls for seats in Tehran have also been disqualified from running.

"We are holding a sit-in inside the parliament building to protest the illegal decision of the Guardian Council to disqualify prominent reformers who have resisted hard-line dictatorship," reformist lawmaker Reza Yousefian, one of those disqualified, told The Associated Press.

Also disqualified were the vice-speakers of parliament — Behzad Nabavi and Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the president and leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's largest reformist party.

"It's meaningless that qualification of prominent figures who have worked for the nation for years is not approved," the president told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. "I'm against such disqualifications. There are legal ways to fight."

He vowed a "harsh reaction" if legal channels fail to change the council's decision.

Some 8,200 prospective candidates registered last month to run in the Feb. 20 elections for 290 legislative seats. In 2000 elections, reformers won control of the parliament from conservatives.

The upcoming polls will be a crucial test for Iran's frustrated reform movement, which has had many of its efforts blocked by unelected hard-liners and has been deflated by the perceived failure of reformist-backed Khatami to fulfill election promises to liberalize the country.

Reformist leaders have threatened a boycott of the election if their candidates are disqualified.

Khatami's government "will not consider illegal decisions by any body as binding," spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh said of the candidates' disqualifications.

That means the Interior Ministry, controlled by reformers, might ignore the Guardian Council's rulings and include the disqualified names on the ballots.

Lawmaker Nabavi, who supports dialogue with the United States, said Wednesday that Iranian voters, not a hard-line body, should decide the makeup of the next parliament.

"It's up to the people to decide whether I (or other hopefuls) are qualified to be a lawmaker or not. They (hard-liners) think lawmakers are their servants. Lawmakers are servants of their voters, the Iranian nation, not a small body," he told a packed press conference at the parliament building in central Tehran.

Reformists want Khamenei's powers to be curbed and want him to answer to the nation. Hard-liners consider Khamenei, who has final say in all matters, above the law and answerable only to God.