Vice President Play Down Election Flap
January 21, 2004
Reuters
Parinoosh Arami and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN -- A top Iranian official said on Wednesday President Mohammad Khatami and his reformist cabinet were ready to quit but later made clear he was reiterating a resignation threat government officials made last week.
Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi told reporters many ministers and vice-presidents had handed in their resignations over a hard-line ban on liberal candidates standing in parliamentary elections and Khatami could lead a mass walk-out.
But speaking later to Reuters by telephone, Abtahi said his remarks repeated the threat made by senior government officials last week and comments by Khatami that reformists should either stick together or leave together.
"It's nothing new. The resignation letters were submitted last week," he said.
Khatami and his allies have made repeated resignation threats in recent years in response to moves by unelected hard-liners to block their efforts at reform.
Other officials played down talk of a political crisis and said they were optimistic a dispute over the disqualification of thousands of parliamentary candidates would soon be resolved.
"The talks are ongoing and we are very hopeful it will be resolved," said one minister, who is among roughly 16 cabinet members who have submitted their resignations.
Abtahi stressed the election row could still be defused if the hard-line Guardian Council, which has barred almost half the 8,200 hopefuls from running in the February 20 vote, followed the advice of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has urged a thorough revision of the disqualifications.
"The framework set by the Supreme Leader is very good and can save the country from the crisis," he told reporters.
Khatami, who is due to address the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, later Wednesday, told reformist politicians in a letter Tuesday he was optimistic about the chances of a fair election.
TALKS CONTINUE
The Guardian Council -- an unelected 12-member body dominated by hard-line clerics with sweeping powers -- announced Tuesday it had so far reversed only 200 of the candidate bans, about five percent of those it had originally disqualified.
Reformists accuse the Guardian Council of trying to help conservative candidates reverse their defeat in 2000 parliamentary elections to reformists, who currently hold roughly two-thirds of parliament's 290 seats.
"These methods (of the Guardian Council) can harm the principles of the (Islamic) revolution and democracy and turn the election into a sure thing," Abtahi told reporters.
Reformist parties, including Khatami's, have threatened to boycott the vote unless the bans are overturned. Dozens of MPs have held an 11-day sit-in at parliament in protest.
Another senior reformist, Vice-President Mohsen Mehralizadeh, said the political standoff had been exaggerated.
"I am convinced that this crisis, if you want to call it that, will be resolved and has no significance," Mehralizadeh told reporters after meeting Austrian President Thomas Klestil in Vienna Wednesday.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4175064Iranian Vice Presidents, Others Resign
1/21/04
Photo: Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, leaves a cabinet meeting in this Sept. 17, 2003, file photo. Some Iranian Cabinet ministers and vice presidents have submitted their resignations to protest disqualifications of thousands of prospective election candidates, Abtahi announced Wednesday Jan. 21, 2004. Iran's Guardian Council, an unelected body controlled by hard-liners, triggered the crisis when it disqualified more than a third of the 8,200 people who applied as candidates in the Feb. 20 elections. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Some Iranian Cabinet ministers and vice presidents have resigned to protest the disqualifications of thousands of prospective election candidates, Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said Wednesday.
Abtahi did not say how many officials resigned nor did he identify them.
"A number of Cabinet ministers and a number of vice presidents have resigned. Naturally, they are waiting to see how things go," Abtahi said after a Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace.
"The Cabinet ministers are very serious in their resignation."
When asked if he had also resigned, Abtahi smiled but did not respond.
The resignations are the latest twist in an ongoing political crisis between reformists and hard-liners.
The crisis was triggered when supervisory bodies affiliated with Iran's Guardian Council, an unelected body controlled by hard-liners, disqualified more than a third of the 8,200 people who applied as candidates in the Feb. 20 elections.
State media controlled by hard-liners say those disqualified failed to meet the legal criteria for candidacy, but reformists maintain the move was intended to skew the elections in favor of conservatives.
"Such disqualifications of prospective candidates is against democracy. The 1979 Islamic revolution was based on democracy, and such methods (by hard-liners) damage our Islamic democracy and turn elections into sham elections," Abtahi said.
The announcement of the resignations came a day after the Guardian Council said it was reinstating 200 candidates and would reconsider the cases of thousands more. That came after fierce opposition from reformists.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari presented a report during Wednesday's Cabinet session saying the hard-liners want to secure at least 180 seats in the 290-seat parliament.
Abtahi said that in recent days a presidential committee has "exerted much effort to reverse the situation, but practically, there has been little progress."
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who is attending an international conference in Davos, Switzerland, must approve the resignations for them to take effect.
Khatami, a leading reformer, has warned that he also might resign if the disqualifications are not reversed.
