10 February 2004	Tuesday	18 Zilhaj 1424

TEHRAN, Feb 9: The party of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Monday dashed its allies' hopes of a united response to the exclusion of hundreds of reformists from the Feb 20 parliamentary elections, announcing it would take part despite the blacklist.

Two leaders of the moderate Association of Combatant Clerics told the pro-reform student news agency ISNA that, contrary to a previous announcement on the interior ministry's official website, the party would not be following its more radical allies into a boycott of the key poll.

"None of the candidates of the Association of Combatant Clerics intends to withdraw from the election," said Majid Ansari. "During last (Sunday) night's meeting, we decided that we would run a list."

His colleague, Rassoul Montajabnia, said the party was now looking to run a common list with other pro-reform candidates who had survived the mass disqualifications announced by the conservative-dominated Guardians Council last month.

The party was in talks with "some" of its partners in the 18-member pro-reform alliance that backs President Khatami, said Mr Montajabnia. "We are going to publish the joint list in the next few days."

A statement released by the party called on supporters to vote for pro-reform candidates in constituencies where they were still able to stand and independents where they had been disqualified.

The decision to take part had been motivated by a determination to prevent "totalitarian candidates entering parliament" and stop the "organizers of this parliamentary coup d'etat from succeeding in their goal of electing a puppet legislature".

The moderates' decision to step back from a complete break with conservatives came after a menacing call to order from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Organizing elections was "one of the officials' responsibilities vis-a-vis the devoted nation and the struggles of the sacred martyrs", Ayatollah Khamenei warned on Sunday.

"It is appropriate that certain grievances of the organs against each other are ignored and all join hands in order to fulfil this grave task in the best and healthiest fashion."

The Association's decision not to boycott ran against the policy adopted by the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the biggest pro-reform party led by President Khatami's brother Mohammad Reza, as well as by the more radical Organization of the Mujahideen of the Islamic Revolution.

It also conflicted with the policy of the pro-reform alliance, known as the 2nd of Khordad Front. Its coordinator Ali Mohammad Hazeri told ISNA on Monday that the alliance's boycott decision still stood, but conceded that its rules allowed each of its 18 member parties to "take their own decision".

President Khatami himself had openly expressed frustration at the continued exclusion of more than 2,000 mainly reformist candidates, 75 of them sitting MPs.

"Those in power whose power doesn't come from the people, but who work against them, who use religion, science and even culture to reinforce their power and humiliate others, who deform history ... will be judged mercilessly by history," the president said at a conference in Tehran on Sunday.

According to figures carried by the official IRNA news agency, a total of 5,650 candidates have been retained for the parliamentary elections out of some 8,000 originally nominated.

The scale of the disqualifications ordered by the Guardians has sparked the resignation of some 120 MPs, as well as provincial governors and ministers, despite threats of prosecution from hardliners.

The conservative-controlled watchdog prompted a new round of recriminations on Monday with a decision to bar the use of computers in the count. The Guardians said their decision had been motivated solely by the failings of the computer system prepared by the reformist-run interior ministry.

But the pro-reform governor of Tehran, Ali Awsat Hashemi, insisted: "All the problems were resolved ... We still don't know what the Guardians are making a fuss about." -AFP