LEADER DELAY PRESIDENT’S INAUGURATION
TEHRAN 5 Aug. (IPS) The inauguration of President Mohammad Khatami’s new term in office, due to take officially in Majles today, was postpone sine die by the regime’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i following a row between the reformist-dominated Majles and the conservatives-controlled Judiciary over the election of new members for the Guardians Council (GC).
"It is necessary to postpone the inauguration until all legal
ambiguities are removed surrounding this important ceremony" (of oath
taking), Mr. Khameneh’i told the Majles Speaker Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karroubi
in a letter sent at the end of a stormy session on Sunday.
The leader’s decision was read to the packed house hours after Mr. Karroubi had formally announced that Mr. Khatami would be sworn in at the Majles Sunday.
According to the Constitution, the president, after winning the votes of the people and the leader's approval, has to be sworn in at the parliament before taking office.
Ayatollah Khameneh’i had endorsed Thursday Mr. Khatami's second term of presidency, giving the green light for the oath taking on Sunday and the presentation of his new cabinet within two weeks.
Mr. Khatami had won a second term in June presidential race, but his inauguration has been hanging in the balance over the election of three new jurists to the leader-controlled twelve-members GC, which supervises the conformity of laws approved by the Majles with Islamic principles, and also wets the credentials of all candidates to the House.
Mr. Khameneh’i took the unprecedented decision after the Majles had rejected two out of three new jurists presented by the Judiciary to sit in the GC, considered by lawmakers, including some from the conservative, as being politically biased or legally inexperienced and incompetent for the task.
It was the first time MMs (Members of the Majles) had rejected council nominees since the early years of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Mr. Ebrahim Azizi was the only nominee who received Majles’s approval. The other two received ever fewer votes in parliament than the others.
The "ambiguities" the leader was referring to in his letter to the Speaker calling for postponement of the oath taking ceremonies comes from the fact that the regime’s Constitution states that the "Guardian Council members must be present at the ceremony", thus the bitter debate between the reformists and the conservatives whether the ambiguous text means "all the members" or not, with the hard liners arguing that all council members must be present.
But Mr. Karroubi had earlier said due to the fact that 10 members of the GC lawyers had been already approved there would be "nothing wrong" with holding the swearing-in ceremony of the president.
Reformers see the argument as a tactic to pressure parliament to endorse the nominees, all of whom are seen to be of conservative leaning.
The GC has 12 members, six jurists introduced by the Judiciary Head and six senior religious jurisprudents appointed by the leader.
In a letter faxed to the official news agency IRNA, the Participation Front that supports Hojjatoleslam Khatami blamed the unprecedented delay in the inauguration on Judiciary Head who refused to co-operate with the Majles in presenting "acceptable personalities" for the GC.
The assembly has asked the judiciary chief to appoint more liberal-minded candidates for the three vacant post in the Guardian council, which is made up of six clerics appointed by the supreme leader and six legal experts elected by parliament.
After refusing to bow to pressure from reformist MPs, the judiciary chief finally compromised on Saturday, presenting two new names. "I have no duty to provide a new list. I do it only to avoid a dispute between parliament and the judiciary and to maintain unity", he said.
What angered most of the MMs was the fact that two of the four new candidates suggested to the Majles latter of the day by the Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mahmood Hashemi-Shahroodi, the leader-appointed Head of the Judiciary were those already rejected.
"Regrettably, the Judiciary Chief, by presenting people, some unknown and some fully attached to one current to the extent that even some MMs of the minority refused to accept them, created obstacles to the (swearing process)", the PF observed in its letter to IRNA. ENDS OATH TAKING POSTPONED 4801