18 January 2004	Sunday	25 Ziqa'ad 1424

TEHRAN, Jan 17: The man in charge of organizing next month's Iranian parliamentary elections vowed on Saturday he would quit unless conservatives rescinded a massive blacklist of candidates , a move that could throw preparations for the crucial vote into disarray.

"What it is important for us is people's rights. If we are successful we will continue our work," Morteza Mobalagh, a deputy interior minister and head of Iran's election committee, told a news conference.

"If we reach a point - and I hope we do not reach that point - at which I think I cannot organise an election based on law, that election will not be organised with me on top," warned Mobalagh, a reformist.

Although Mobalagh said the interior ministry "does not have the authority to delay the elections" and that the February 20 polls would go ahead with or without him, his resignation or that of other reformist officials would raise questions over whether the polls could even be held.

On Sunday, Iran's conservative Guardians Council - a political watchdog that vets all legislation and candidates for public office - drew allegations it was seeking to oust reformists from the Majlis after it disqualified almost half of the 8,157 people seeking to stand.

Most on the blacklist were reformers, among them some 83 incumbent MPs and some of the reform movement's most prominent figures.

The move prompted a flurry of resignation threats, and embattled President Mohammad Khatami said he would lead a mass walk-out of cabinet ministers, provincial governors and MPs unless the Guardians Council backs down.

But supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the Guardians Council - all of whose 12 members he directly or indirectly appoints - to review their decision and be less stringent.

On Saturday, state television said the matter was discussed between President Khatami, moderate parliament speaker Mehdi Karoubi and the Guardians Council.

The report said they "stressed the necessity to adhere to the law... and make all means available for clean, free and populist elections", but gave no further details.

The Guardians Council is due to make a final ruling on the disqualifications at the end of the month, and a definitive list of candidates is due to be released around February 12.

But while it appears set to review its blacklist, Mobalagh said another serious crisis was brewing after plans by the reformist-run interior ministry to computerise vote counting were rejected by the same watchdog.

He also revealed the Guardians Council - which also has to validate any election result and has employed its own parallel network of election observers - was insisting on carrying out its own vote count.

Reformists have warned hardliners may be seeking to split and therefore further discredit the reform movement - divided between more radical elements in parliament and moderates like the president who are closer to the clerical hierarchy - by rescinding just a small part of the blacklist and compromising on the cases of some incumbent MPs.

Mohammad Reza Khatami, leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) and younger brother of the president, has called for the thousands of other disqualified candidates to also be allowed to stand, and said a parliamentary sit-in - now entering its seventh day - would go on.

"The repercussions of what they (conservatives) are doing to the country is like an earthquake. What we are seeking is a religious government but without despotism," leading reformist MP Rajabali Mazroui told MPs at the parliament Saturday.

Scores of MPs have been occupying parliament on an on-off basis for the past week. On Saturday they began fasting, and received visits from human rights lawyers and the main pro-reform student group, the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU).

Students, a driving force behind the embattled reform movement who last summer took to the streets in pro-democracy protests that sparked a nationwide security alert, have so far kept out of the stand-off. -AFP