Iran's Parliament Halts Debate on Electoral Law Amendments

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 26, 2001

Iran's Parliament Halts Debate on Electoral Law Amendments

Iran's Majlis (parliament) on Sunday approved to halt its debate on a controversial bill on electoral law amendments, over which the country's conservatives and reformists have locked in a new wave of row. The debate will be halted for one month, the official IRNA news agency said, but giving no explanation about the reason behind the approval.

Iran's conservative Guardian Council (GC), the elections watchdog, has earlier disqualified 55 hopefuls for parliamentary by-election in the northern province of Golestan, scheduled to be on November 30.

The reformist-majority Majlis then thrown in an urgent motion to adopt amendments to the present electoral law, which excludes several reformist nominees in the upcoming by-election. Over 100 candidates are bidding to vie for seven seats, vacated after the death of MPs from Golestan during a plane crash in May this year.

The GC on Tuesday dubbed the motion unconstitutional and rejected a proposal to establish an arbitration body to settle legislative disputes between the parliament and the oversight body because it "is contrary to the constitutional laws." However, the impasse was left Thursday to the arbitration of the Expediency Council during an extraordinary session of the parliament after the lawmakers overwhelmingly voted again for the bill. The session also decided that the by-election in the Golestan Province be postponed "until the fate of the nominees ruled as ineligible to run is decided." But the by-elections will go ahead on November 30 according to the plan despite parliament's open-ended sanction, the IRNA said.