TEHRAN, Jan 26: Iran's political crisis deepened on Monday as conservatives stuck by their power to bar thousands of reformist candidates from next month's parliamentary elections
, prompting a threat by the latter not to organize the vote.
Officials said the Guardians Council, the conservative-run political watchdog behind the electoral blacklist, had vetoed an emergency move by the reformist-dominated parliament to curb their weeding out of candidates.
The body, which screens all legislation and has drawn allegations that it is trying to rig the Feb 20 elections, argued the bill passed by the Majlis contained "points contrary to religion and the constitution".
According to Mohsen Mirdamadi, a senior pro-reform deputy, nearly all of the 80 MPs who have been holding a two-week-old sit-in at the Majlis building were now poised to resign.
"Today and tomorrow the MPs who are holding the sit-in are meeting to decide on when they will resign," Mr Mirdamadi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, said.
"The majority of those involved in the sit-in are going to resign," he added. "Once we have resigned, our opponents can no longer say our threat is a bluff."
Mohammad Reza Khatami, head of the main reformist party and brother of embattled President Mohammad Khatami, hinted that such a step may come by Saturday, when the Guardians Council releases its final list of approved candidates.
And chief government spokesman and cabinet secretary Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told the student news agency ISNA that authorities might refuse to organize the elections.
"We cannot organize an election which is uncompetitive, unhealthy and not free," he warned, arguing that the drawn-out dispute was leaving candidates without enough time to campaign.
He also reiterated that an undisclosed number of cabinet members had informed President Khatami of their intention to resign if the crisis continued.Under Iran's constitution, the interior ministry - currently held by reformists- is in charge of organizing elections and vote counting.
The crisis erupted after the Guardians Council blacklisted 3,605 of 8,157 prospective candidates. Those barred included some 80 sitting members of the Majlis and prominent leaders of the reform movement.
Reformists contend that given the present level of disqualifications, they are certain to lose their control of parliament - and therefore the government.The Majlis, controlled by reformists since 2000, on Sunday voted amendments aimed at making it easier for candidates to stand, and preventing the Council from disqualifying sitting MPs unless they had been convicted of a criminal offence.
One amendment would have prevented disqualifications based on any other criteria than Iran's common law, a response to the council's rejection of a number of candidates for alleged failures to respect Islam, the constitution and in particular the status of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader.
It came as little surprise this was vetoed. Under Iran's constitution, the 12-member Guardians Council has the power to screen all legislation to see if it complies with Islam and the constitution.
A bastion of the religious right, it has also consistently blocked efforts by reformists to shake up the 25-year-old republic. But the head of the Guardians Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, hit back at a statement from President Khatami and the speaker of parliament, Mehdi Karubi, who have demanded a "full review" of the blacklist.-AFP
