Posted on 04/12/2003 6:40:05 AM PDT by jazzyjen97
TEHRAN, April 12 (AFP) - A second key reform bill adopted by Iranian MPs in a bid to remove hardline barriers to President Mohammad Khatami's legislative agenda is set to be vetoed by a conservative watchdog body, a top official was quoted as saying SaturdayIran's reformist-controlled parliament last week approved the bill that would allow Khatami to challenge the judiciary and issue "warnings" to government institutions, including the judiciary, over the abuse of their powers.
The judiciary, a bastion of Iran's religious right, has been a major stumbling block to Khatami's brand of "Islamic perestroika" and has been accused of targetting reformist supporters of the president.
But Mirdamadi said the Guardians Council, which which screens proposed laws to ensure they are in accordance with the constitution and Islamic principles, viewed the bill as a prelude to presidential dictatorship.
"A very dangerous presidential power is taking shape: this is contrary to the constitution and will be resisted," he said, noting that the reform camp had failed to consider who would actually succeed Khatami when his second term in office ends in 2005.
"The depotism written into this law is terrible, and the next president would not leave any right to judges and nobody could do anything without the president's permission."
Khatami and his supporters have argued that the reform camp lacks the necessary powers to push through a series of social, political and economic reforms, and has passed two bills aimed at boosting Khatami's powers.
Earlier this month the Guardians Council rejected the first bill, which was aimed at curbing its own powers to vet electoral candidates. Reformists complain that the right has been used to exclude scores of their candidates from public office.
In anticipation of the conservatives rejecting Khatami's twin bills -- seen as a last-ditch attempt to rescue his presidency -- some reformists have called for a referendum or even a mass-walk-out from the system
I'd really like to see a more secularized Iran. I suspect that many of the other dictators and petty tyrants in the middle east are looking at Iran and praying that a true republic doesn't take root there.
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