REJECTED LAWMAKERS DETERMINED TO RESIST DISQUALIFICATIONS

TEHRAN 12 Jan (IPS) As Iranian reformists, frustrated at the decision by the conservatives-controlled Council of the Guardians (CG) to disqualify tens of leading reformist candidates from running in the coming Legislative elections, threatened Monday to boycott the race on a nation scale, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i indicated his reluctance to intervene in the unprecedented showdown.

"I hope the problem will be resolved through legal channels. Of course, if the legal process failed to resolve and the problem requiring the leader’s intervention, I’ll do my job", he emphatically told a gathering of provincial governors expressing their grievances about the performance of the Supervisory Board in rejecting the credentials of more than eighty prominent reformist Members of Majles.

To the governors who observed that the law has not been respected in disqualifying the hopefuls, Mr. Khameneh'i, who, as the leader of the Islamic Republic, has the last word on every major issue recommended to "explore legal channels" to resolve their dispute with the Supervisory Board.

"The Supreme Leader advised those who think their rights have been violated by the Supervisory Board to observe calm and avoid tension to give the legal channels envisaged in election law the opportunity to examine the complaints", the official news agency IRNA reported from the meeting.

In a letter to President Mohammad Khatami, the governors gave him one week to stand up to the CG and overturn its controversial decision or they would resign, joining the rejected deputies who, led by Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the President, have staged a protest sit in at the Majles.

"We will continue our sit-in until politically motivated disqualifications are reversed. If it is not reversed, there will be no elections. There is no reason to participate in so-called elections where hard-line thinkers run without any rivals", ", lawmaker Elaaheh Koola’i told "The Associated Press".

In response, Mr. Khatami appealed for calm and called on all parties to avoid tension while he was discussing the issue with the leader.

But as Mr. Khatami refused to brand his earlier threats of resignation, one of his aides, Mr. Mohammad Sattari-Far warned, "the Government would resign if it fails to carry out its duties and defending people’s right for clean, fair and democratic elections".

"The Government finds itself in a very difficult situation, for, in the one hand, it is responsible to the people to whom it has promised fair and clean elections, but on the other, if he can not offer the promised religious democracy, it doesn’t make difference if it resigns or not", he told the governors.

For its part, Interior Minister Hojjatoleslam Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said that his ministry and the governors have done "what they could" to hold elections in the best manner, "but, the Supervisory Board have not considered the report of the Executive Board in confirming eligibility of the candidates".

The row between the powerful but un-elected ayatollahs who rule the Iranian system of theocracy and the elected, but powerless organs of the regime erupted last week after the 12-members, leader-appointed CG announced the disqualification of more than 2.033, among them 80 reformist MMs out of the 8.145 candidates who registered for the coming Majles elections, due on 20 February.

According to statistics released last week by the Supervisory Board, some 44.4 per cent of the candidates were rejected on the basis of lack of allegiance to the fundaments of Islam, the Islamic Republic and the Constitution.

"This is a civilian coup, a move to change the regime by no military means", Chairman of the Majles’ National Security and Foreign Affaires, Mr. Mohsen Mirdamadi said about the mass disqualifications.

Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the beleaguered President who is both a first deputy-Speaker and leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front that controls most of the parliament’s 292 seats, Mr. Behzad Nabavi, the second deputy-Speaker, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Naser Shirzad, Mohsen Loqmanian, Ali Akbar Kho’eini and Mrs. Elaaheh Koola’i, Fatemeh Haqiqatjoo and Shahrbanoo Amani are among outspoken and popular incumbent deputies who have been refused.

"When half of the 8.000 people running for the elections are disqualified, this means they are against the system", Mr. Sattari-Far noted, acknowledging that the Government "feels its incapacity". "The message is we shall stand firm not allowing illegality", he added. IRAN DISQUALIFICATION 12104