MAJORITY OF CANDIDATES OPPOSED TO THEOCRACY REJECTED
TEHRAN, 9 Jan. (IPS)
A majority of candidates running for the next Majles (parliament) elections have been invalidated because of their rejection of the very fundaments of the present theocratic Constitution, according to a statement released Friday by the leader-controlled Council of the Guardians (CG).
Based on results obtained from the various examining bodies, including the Intelligence Ministry, the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the Law Enforcement Forces and the Interior Ministry, 54.5 per cent out of the 8.146 candidates that have registered so far have been rejected by the Council of the Guardians because they either "do not believe in Islamic principles (13.8%); do not believe in the fundaments of a religious governance (14.5%) or do not agree with the Constitution (16.5%).
Another 32 per cent of the runners have been rejected because of "financial and moral corruption or bad antecedents", the pro-conservative "Baztab" internet newspaper said without explaining, quoting the regime’s powerful but controversial 12-members Council of the Guardians that vets all candidates to all elections in the Islamic Republic.
"The result confirms the growing trend pointing to the majority of Iranians being divorced with the religion, opposed to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic and supporting s parliamentary system based on secularism", one Iranian scholar teaching at Tehran University told Iran Press Service on condition of anonymity.
According to Baztab, an internet website belonging to Mr. Mohsen Reza’i, the Secretary of the Expediency Council, some leading reformist figures like Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the powerless President Mohammad Khatami who is both the leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) and vice-Speaker, Mr. Mohsen Armin and Mr. Behzad Nabavi, both influential leaders of the Islamic Revolution’s Mojahedeen Organisation, the most important and best organized member of the Second Khordad Coalition that supports the lamed Khatami, Mrs. Fatemeh Haqiqatjoo, an outspoken reformist deputy from Tehran and Mr. Naser Shirzad, a representative to the Majles form Esfahan are among the hopefuls that have been rejected on charges of activities against the regime.
Next legislative elections are slated for 21 February and odds are that the conservatives would regain the control of the Majles, as a majority of young voters, deceived with both the reformist’s failure to carry out reforms promised by Hojjatoleslam Khatami during his first election campaign in 1997, have decided not to go to the polls, while other voices, including from the ranks of the reformists, call for a total boycott of the elections.
Expressing serous concern about the outcome of the elections, the seventh in the life of the Islamic Republic, Mr. Nabavi contested the Guardian’s self-appointed right of vetting candidates, saying, "Majles representatives are servants of the people, not the Council of the Guardians".
"I rather explode over a mine or I would disclose all information about the existence of a General Staff working against reformist candidates, he warned during a press conference on Friday, confirming an earlier statement by the Government’s official spokesman about the formation of such an "illegal" group.
ENDS MAJLES ELECTIONS 9104
http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Jan_04/majles_elections_9104.htm Wait a darn minute! The State Dept says Iran is a democracy, and we all know they're never wrong about these sorts of thing.
/sarcasm