Iran reformers to boycott vote
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Khatami's government has called for the vote to be postponed.
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TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Iran's largest reform party said on Monday it would boycott the February 20 parliamentary election, turning up the heat on hardliners in the Islamic Republic's worst political crisis for years.
Iran's reformists are enraged by the decision of the Guardian Council -- an unelected constitutional oversight body run by religious hardliners -- to declare more than 2,000 would-be lawmakers unfit to stand in the election.
More than 120 reformist lawmakers resigned from parliament on Sunday and President Mohammad Khatami's reformist government has called for the vote to be postponed.
"We have no hope that a fair, free and legitimate election can be held on February 20. So in the current circumstances we cannot participate," Mohammad Reza Khatami, head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) party, told a news conference.
He added the party, one of the main backers of his brother President Mohammad Khatami, would only put forward candidates for an election if the candidate bans were overturned and the vote was delayed to allow more time for campaigning.
He stressed that while the IIPF was boycotting the election, it was not calling on Iranians to abstain from voting if the election takes place as planned.
The Guardian Council's move has led to international concern about the vote's legitimacy and overshadowed celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's return from exile to create an Islamic state.
More than 80 deputies in the reformist-dominated 290-seat parliament are among those barred from the election.
Should the Guardian Council -- comprised of 12 clerics and Islamic jurists -- reject the delay request, Khatami's government could refuse to organize the vote. Khatami could also allow provincial governors, who play a key role in administering elections, to carry out their threat to resign over the issue.
Concerned about such tactics, hardliners have threatened to prosecute any official who hampers the vote by resigning.
A request for a vote delay by the Interior Ministry was rejected by the Guardian Council last week. A second request, lodged on Saturday, has not yet been answered.
Despite the heightened political tension, public interest in the dispute has so far been muted. Disillusioned by years of broken promises of reform, most Iranians have grown apathetic to the reformist-hardline power struggle.
An official at the Tehran governor's office told the ISNA students news agency a package containing some wiring, but no explosive, was found at parliament's entrance on Sunday after the assembly received an anonymous bomb threat by telephone.
With talks between appointed hardliners and elected reformers deadlocked, hopes for a solution are pinned on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Khomeini in 1989.
Analysts say Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters, may order many of the candidate bans overturned to avert a legitimacy crisis and heightened international criticism.
"It's the leader's time to step in now. Although he often leaves things until the very last moment," said one political analyst who declined to be identified.
Given the proximity of the election and the lengthy case-by-case process needed to confirm the resignations, analysts said the lawmakers' walkout was largely a tactical ploy.
Copyright 2004
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
