Swearing-in Ceremony for Iran's Re-elected President

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Saturday ordered the Majlis (parliament) to postpone the swearing-in ceremony for re-elected President Mohammad Khatami.

The order was issued after pro-reform lawmakers rejected two of candidates nominated by the conservative judiciary for three renewed posts for the Guardian Council (GC) jurists.

In a letter to Majlis Speaker Mehdi Karrubi, quoted by the official IRNA news agency, the Supreme Leader said that as two of the judiciary nominees have failed to win parliament's approval to become GC jurists, some legal obscurity is seen in holding the swearing-in ceremony for the president.

The swearing-in ceremony, scheduled for Sunday, should be postponed until the required conditions are met, he added.

Earlier in the day, the reformist-majority parliament in its open sessions approved only one of the six nominees proposed by the conservative judiciary for membership in the conservative- controlled Guardian Council.

The 12-member GC oversees laws enacted by Majlis to ensure that they confirm with the Islamic teachings and the national constitution.

The council comprises six jurists appointed by the country's Supreme Leader Khamenei alongside six lawyers elected by parliament, which decides on half of the council's positions every three years -- from a list prepared by the judiciary.

Pro-reform lawmakers, who have been squaring off against the conservative GC for barring their candidates in various elections and blocking most of the progressive laws they passed over the past several months, made it known that they disapproved of the nominees as "too political."

But conservatives have threatened that if their nominees were rejected, they would block the investiture ceremony of reformist President Khatami to his second and final four-year term.

Khatami was re-elected in a landslide victory, winning 77 percent of the vote in this year's June 8 elections. The Supreme Leader last Thursday endorsed Khatami's second term of presidency.

According to the constitution, the president, after winning the votes of the people and the approval of the Supreme Leader, has to be sworn in at the parliament before taking office.






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