February 07, 2004
Iran's president loses fight over election.
President Mohammed Khatami says that Iran's legislative elections will go on as scheduled on February 20. Khatami's decision is an apparent capitulation to Iran's conservatives, who control the Guardian Council that has barred 2000 candidates from running for office. Almost all of those candidates are reformists.
In announcing his decision, Khatami warned that Iran's voters are unlikely to show much interest in an election in which so many candidates have been kept from participating. The major reformist group, the Participation Front, has already said that it will boycott the election, and 160 members of parliament have resigned in protest of the Guardian Council's actions.
Via BBC.
Posted by Magpie at February 7, 2004 02:20 PM | TrackBackactually, i think the banned candidates were mostly reformists. and some of them were sitting members of parliament, also reformists, who've been banned from seeking re-election.
Posted by: natasha on February 7, 2004 03:47 PMoops. i thought i'd typed 'reformists' there at the end of the first paragraph. i guess i'm not as awake as i think.
i'll make the appropriate change.
Posted by: Magpie on February 7, 2004 04:08 PM