The Guardian,
President under pressure to end impasse as Guardian Council rejects criticism over disqualification of 3,000 reformist election candidates
Iran's powerful Guardian Council said yesterday that it stood by a decision to disqualify thousands of reformist candidates from standing in next month's parliamentary elections.
The constitutional body, which is dominated by hardliners, said it would not be influenced by criticism from MPs, who have been holding a sit-in to protest at the ban.
“The Guardian Council won't back down at all,” a spokesman, Ebrahim Azizi, told a press conference.
“We claim that the Guardian Council has constantly implemented the law… Hues and cries will have no impact on our interpretation of the law,” he said.
Although the council said it was reviewing appeals from disqualified candidates, the comments dashed hopes of a quick resolution to the crisis.
The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who appoints the council members directly or indirectly, has urged the body to review its decision and be more lenient.
But it was unclear to what degree the council would follow Ayatollah Khamenei's instructions. In some cases, conservative institutions have chosen to delay or only partially implement his wishes.
The council has failed to approve more than 3,000 of 8,200 prospective candidates, including 80 sitting MPs, leading reformists to accuse it of trying to rig the elections.
Reformist MPs have vowed to continue their sit-in at the parliament building, which has entered its second week.
Protesters, who have begun to look haggard after a week of sitting on the floor, began dawn-to-dusk fasts at the weekend to underline their determination.
They said they were hopeful that negotiations between the reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, and the Guardian Council would produce a positive result.
“It seems that among the conservatives there are still some who recognise the reality of the situation,” one reformist MP, Elahe Koulaiee, said. “They care about the country's problems rather than party rivalries.”
The crisis follows six years of deadlock in which attempts by the reformist majority to introduce greater political and social freedom have been vetoed by conservative clerics.
The showdown carries risks for both sides.
If they chose to, the conservatives could use their powerful position to prevent a reformist majority. But this would close an important outlet for public dissatisfaction and could give birth to a more radical, unified opposition.
The reformists, meanwhile, risk losing what is left of their credibility after failing to carry out previous threats to resign and confront the hardliners.
The sit-in has failed to win over ordinary Iranians, who have become disillusioned with the reformists' conciliatory approach.
“If they bow to pressure from the conservatives, the reformists will end up in the drainpipe of history,” said one Tehran journalist.
Analysts believe the council might lift the ban on most moderate candidates while barring a smaller number of more strident figures, presenting the reformists with an awkward choice.
Provincial governors and several members of Mr Khatami's cabinet have threatened to resign if the ban is not lifted. On Saturday, the government official in charge of organising the elections, the deputy interior minister, Morteza Moballegh, said he would refuse to carry out his duties if the disqualifications remained in force.
Conservative newspapers ridiculed the reformists for failing to inspire a popular response on the street, and portrayed them as tools of western governments.
Without the threat of public pressure, the MPs were “trapped in a game without spectators”, a conservative commentator, Amir Mohebian, wrote in the daily Resalat.
