Khatami to Hold Re-election Campaign Rally on May 28Iranian President Mohammad Khatami will hold his first re-election campaign rally on Monday after a judiciary ban for the rally was cancelled, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Sunday.The rally has been authorized hours after it was banned by the conservative judiciary, Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, head of Khatami's office, was quoted as saying. "Following relentless efforts late last night, the head of Tehran's Justice Administration Abbas-Ali Alizadeh contacted me this morning and confirmed the cancellation of the ban," Abtahi said, adding that "they said Khatami can hold his campaign rally since the place has been rented." Khatami's campaign headquarters has earlier rented the Shiroudi Stadium in Tehran for the campaign rally, which is expected to gather more than 30,000 people and be the highlight of his re- election campaign before the June 8 polls. But the judiciary on Saturday ordered police to stop the event, saying that it would ban on the use of government property to campaign for the June 8 presidential election. Abtahi said that it was surprising for us because Abdollah Jasbi, another candidate, had held a rally in the same stadium the other day. Khatami won seventh presidential elections in 1997 with nearly 70 percent of the popular vote. The 57-year-old cleric, who is facing nine challengers in the nation's largest-ever field of presidential candidates, is widely expected to win a second four- year term, but with votes less than that in the previous election. |
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