Iranian Reformists, Conservatives Wrangle as Electoral Crisis Looms Large

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 22, 2001

Iranian Reformists, Conservatives Wrangle as Electoral Crisis Looms Large

Iran's reformists and conservatives have been locked in a fresh wrangle over disputes on the nomination of candidates for an upcoming Majlis (parliament) by-election in the northeastern coastal province of Golestan.

Over 100 hopefuls, mainly reformists, were vying for seven seats vacated after the deaths of lawmakers from Golestan in a plane crash in May along with then Transport Minister Rahman Dadman.

But the conservatives-controlled elections watchdog Guardian Council (GC) has rejected 55 of the hopefuls for the mid-term election, a move which drew the ire of the reformists-dominated parliament and the Interior Ministry.

The 12-member GC oversees laws passed by the Majlis to confirm their conformity with Islamic teachings and the Constitution.

In its showdown with the oversight body, the Majlis on Tuesday adopted a triple-priority motion, the second of its kind in the Islamic Republic's 22-year-old history, to set up an arbitration board to address disputes between itself and the GC on issues concerning the elections.

The motion said that in case of discrepancy between the council and the Interior Ministry over the disqualification of legislative candidates, a board comprising head of the Expediency Council (EC), the Majlis speaker, the Interior Minister and the GC Secretary would intervene to decide on the case.

The job has been constitutionally entrusted to Iran's Expediency Council, a kind of upper house dominated by hard-liners assigned to mediate in disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council.

In a bid to nip the conflict in the bud, the powerful GC ruled swiftly late Tuesday that "the formation of an arbitrative body runs contrary to the constitutional laws," thus dampening reformists' hopes that the bill would be through, the hardline Tehran Times reported on Wednesday.

While proponents of the motion expected to speed up the arbitration process in terms of the parliament elections and by- elections by throwing in the emergency bill, the GC's rebuff has largely dimmed their hopes.

But the stranded amendment, which ironically requires to be approved by the GC before it becomes a law, will go to the EC for a final judge.

Iran's reformists have been at odds with the GC, which is accused by reformists of being used to stand in the way of approving the qualification of candidates in various elections and passing reform laws aimed at bringing in changes to the relatively isolated country.

Feeling hard to digest what the GC has imposed, reformist Majlis deputies have started to sound an alarm bell, warning that the violation of parliamentary candidates' rights would be detrimental to national security and cost people's trust in the Islamic system.

Reformist lawmaker from Tehran Behzad Nabavi, who was the first to raise the issue, stressed said the GC's mass exclusion of would- be candidates was "on the grounds of a lack of commitment to the regime, the Constitution and the Supreme Leader."

Nabavi, who is considered parliament spokesman for the pro- reform camp in the Majlis, warned that if the status quo remains unchanged, "reformist groups and candidates will boycott (the elections) and the turnout will drop drastically," the Iran Daily has earlier reported.

Observing the political impasse, Iran's Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a close ally to President Mohammad Khatami, stepped in on Sunday, urging the GC to reconsider its decision on mass disqualification of the candidates, and to have their eligibility approved. But the GC turned a deaf ear to Abtahi's call by upholding its ruling.