108 Iranian Reformist MPs Resign in Vote Dispute
Sun February 1, 2004 02:36 AM ET
Parinoosh Arami
TEHRAN (Reuters) -
More than 100 Iranian reformist lawmakers submitted their resignations on Sunday in protest over a hard-line watchdog's decision to disqualify hundreds of reformist candidates from parliamentary elections on Feb. 20.
"Now the totalitarians have decided to eliminate republicanism and after that Islam by forming a show parliament. We have no choice but to resign," prominent reformist member of parliament Mohsen Mirdamadi said in a speech on behalf of 108 resigning lawmakers.
The resignations marked a significant escalation of Iran's worst political crisis for years which was sparked by the Guardian Council's decision to bar more than 2,000 aspiring candidates from standing in the election.
Reformist allies of President Mohammad Khatami accuse unelected hard-liners, who have used their sweeping powers to block most reform efforts since Khatami's 1997 election, of carrying out a blatant grab for power.
"One (political) faction lacks the support of the people. They want to gain it by force through the Guardian Council," said parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi.
Reformists won a comfortable majority of parliament's 290 seats in 2000 elections. Among those barred from this month's vote are more than 80 current reformist deputies.
The mass resignations will make it difficult for parliament to continue functioning given the requirement of a quorum of two-thirds of members to be present to hold a session.
"They want to cover the ugly body of dictatorship with the beautiful dress of democracy," Mirdamadi said in an unusually stinging public address broadcast live on state radio.
The resignations will be submitted to parliament's presiding board for consideration later in the week, members of parliament told Reuters.
The electoral dispute has raised concern abroad about the future of democracy in the oil-rich nation, which this month marks the 25th anniversary of the Islamic revolution that brought clerics to power.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari on Saturday said the elections would lack legitimacy if allowed to go ahead with so many candidates barred from the race.
CALL FOR VOTE DELAY
He said the candidate bans meant reformists would not be able to compete for more than half of parliament's seats. Reformist parties have said they will boycott the elections.
Mousavi-Lari, who is responsible for organizing the vote, has called on the Guardian Council -- an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic jurists -- to agree to a postponement of the poll.
Scores of top government officials, including vice-presidents, Cabinet ministers and state governors have also threatened to resign over the election dispute.
Khatami, who has tended to avoid direct confrontation with hard-liners since coming to power, has voiced hope that the dispute can be resolved through negotiations and pledged to hold a competitive election on the scheduled date.
Karroubi said he and Khatami had started "new measures" to resolve the standoff on Saturday night.
He did not elaborate but called on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all matters of state, "to intervene and resolve this issue."
Analysts say Khamenei, concerned that the elections will cause a crisis of legitimacy and increase international criticism of Iran's clerical rule, may step in to force the Guardian Council to reinstate most of the banned candidates.
Despite the intensifying political atmosphere, public interest in the dispute remained muted. After years of broken promises of reform, most Iranians have grown increasingly disenchanted with the reformist-conservative power struggle.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4255972 
