REFORMISTS SUFFER NEW SETBACK BY EXPEDIENCY COUNCIL
TEHRAN 28 Nov. (IPS) Reformist MMs (Member of the Majles) warned Wednesday they would seriously consider calling a referendum on election laws after they suffered a new setback in their bitter fight against the Council of Guardians when the Assembly for Discerning the Interests of the State (ADIS) rejected their bid for arbitration.
The ADIS, an advisory body that is headed by former president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani rejected Wednesday both the arbitration demand and an attempted by the reformist-dominated Majles to amend the electoral law.
The embattled President Mohammad Khatami, a junior cleric as well as the Heads of the leader-controlled Judiciary and the Legislative attended the session.
The ADIS, also referred to as "Expediency Council", which arbitrates in disputes between the regime's institutions, backed the conservatives-controlled Guardians in throwing out the parliament's moves.
The bill was sent to the Expediency Council after the 12-member CG had rejected it as "unconstitutional", asserting what it called its indisputable right to disqualify candidates for legislative elections.
Members of the ADIS are appointed by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh段, the leader of the Islamic Republic and the majority of its members are hard-liners.
The new row between the Majles and the CG erupted after the Guardians rejected in bundle almost all reformist candidates for the Friday by-elections in the north-eastern Province of Golestan, using their contested and controversial "special rights" that allows them to reject any candidate without providing reasons.
The Province痴 seven deputies, all reformists, alongside the Transport Minister, Mr. Rahman Dadman, were killed in a plane crash last May.
The proposed amendments said the Guardians' decisions on candidates should be approved by at least nine of the body's 12 members, and could be ignored if they were not legally justified.
Several influential reformist deputies, including Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the General Secretary of Islamic Iran Participation Party, Mr. Mohsen Armin, a Vice-Speaker, Mr. Behzad Nabavi, a former Heavy Industries Minister and Mr. Rajabali Mazroo段 ad warned that in case the amendment were rejected by the Expediency Council, there should be a referendum to revise the electoral laws.
Mr. Nabavi and Mr. Armin went as far as suggesting that if the Guardians refused to change their decision concerning the Golestan痴 reformist candidates, the elections might be boycotted by reformist voters.
Mr. Mazrou段, a deputy from the central city of Esfahan told The Associated Press that referendum would likely be held before the 2003 legislative elections.
"As elected lawmakers, we have exercised various options to get the demands of the people enforced but have met opposition from appointed bodies", he said.
"There is no other choice before us. We are now seriously beginning to consider a referendum on democratic rights", he added.
Iran's constitution allows parliament to hold a referendum if such a request is approved by a two-thirds majority of the 290-member house.
Since the landslide victory of reformers in the last legislative elections, reformist lawmakers have clashed on numerous occasions with the Guardians who, taking their orders from Mr. Khameneh段, systematically rejected bills and motions aimed at modernising the political life of the regime, notably for liberalising the strict press code, facilitating foreign investments and defining political crimes.
Virtually every time the issue has gone to arbitration the Expediency Council has backed the Guardians, indicating the huge power still wielded by conservatives despite the election result.
Meanwhile, a Saudi newspaper said Wednesday that President Mohammad Khatami's work stoppage was not due to health reasons, but to a row with Ayatollah Ali Khameneh段.
The London-based "Asharq al-Awsat", quoting sources close to Khatami's family, said the political dispute between the two leaders was mainly over Iran's attitude toward the United States.
It said Khatami's bitterness started when Khameneh段 attacked the country's reformist movement in a speech last month.
Khatami considered that Khameneh段 was indirectly criticising him ahead of his departure for the United Nations General Assembly in New York in order "to ban him from meeting American officials."
Following Khamenei's speech, the head of the judicial authority in Iran, Mahmood Hashemi-Shahroodi, decided to create a legal committee to confront deputies and other political officials "if ever they called for starting dialogue with the United States or adopted a programme opposing the directives" of Khameneh段.
The sources close to Khatami's family told the daily that he then felt "frustrated and deceived ...and could not maneuver anymore, a fact that forced him to remain at home."
They said Khatami "has been suffering from back problems for more than 10 years and this had never led to his absence."
On Tuesday, Khatami's aide hojjatoleslam Mohammad-Ali Abtahi was quoted by the state IRNA news agency as saying that the president had resumed work despite his doctor's orders to take two weeks of complete rest for his back troubles. ENDS MAJLES CG REFERENDUM 281101