Iran's president told 27 provincial governors who threatened to resign that he may join their walkout unless conservatives reverse a decision barring pro-reform candidates from elections, a government official said.
President Mohammad Khatami, meeting with the governors, condemned the Guardian Council's decision to bar more than 3,000 candidates from taking part in Feb. 20 elections.
The ban includes some 80 sitting lawmakers, and legislators say all of them are reformist. State broadcast media, which are controlled by hard-liners, say the candidates lacked "the necessary legal qualifications."
PHOTO: EPA
A senior official in the president's office said on Tuesday that he heard Khatami tell the governors that he supported their decision and it was possible that he might join them.
"Either we stay on all together or we leave all together," the official quoted Khatami as telling the governors.
Iranian state television, which the hard-liners control, quoted the reformist president as telling the governors: "What happened during the process of disqualifying individuals was not right."
The report quoted Khatami as saying: "I believe that all of us will have to be strong. If one day we were asked to leave the arena, then all of us must do so."
Government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh said on his Web site on Tuesday that several senior government officials believe the decision will impede their work. Vice President Mohammad Sattarifar also said on Monday that if the government can't protect "legitimate freedoms" including fair elections, it might step down.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has pledged to intervene if the crisis is not resolved, but has urged complainants to use legal channels to pursue their case. Disqualified candidates have the right to appeal.
Several reformist lawmakers blamed Khamenei himself for the disqualifications by the council, an unelected constitutional watchdog. About 8,200 people filed papers to run for the 290-seat legislature.
"Guardian Council members are hand-picked by him. It's not logical to think council members make decisions without their leader's support," said Ali Tajernia, one of the legislators barred from running again. Another reformist lawmaker, Shahrbanou Amani, also blamed Khamenei.
Some reformists have threatened to boycott the elections if the disqualifications stand.
The largest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, issued a statement on Tuesday saying the disqualifications would lead to a "sham parliament."
"Disqualifications deny the people their constitutional right to choose and be chosen," the statement said.
The US and the EU have also warned the disqualifications would jeopardize the Iranian parliament's legitimacy.
For a third consecutive day on Tuesday, about 90 legislators staged a sit-in in the lobby of the parliament building. The lawmakers took off their shoes and sat on the floor while taking turns to address the media from a podium.
The elections are seen as a crucial test for Iran's reformers, whose popularity has waned because of their perceived failure to deliver on promises of liberalization. Hard-liners long have used their control of unelected bodies -- such as the judiciary and the Guardian Council -- to block reform.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS