Iranian reformist politicians on Monday considered mass resignations or boycotting next month's parliamentary elections after a hard-line body vetoed their attempt to overturn bans on thousands of election hopefuls.
Iran's reformist-dominated parliament passed an emergency electoral reform bill on Sunday in a clear act of defiance aimed at the Guardian Council, which has barred almost half of the 8,200 aspirants from running in the Feb. 20 election.
But the council, an unelected body of 12 Islamic jurists and conservative clerics, used its wide powers to reject the bill, further escalating Iran's worst political crisis in years.
Dozens of top officials in reformist President Mohammad Khatami's government have vowed to resign if the council does not reverse the mass disqualifications, which have prompted international concerns about the legitimacy of the looming vote.
Ali Tajernia, one of around 100 reformist members of parliament who have held a two-week sit-in at the site of the parliament since the candidate bans were announced, said the next step in their protest could be to announce mass resignations from the 290-seat parliament.
"If these attempts fail and we fail to see conditions for free elections ... boycotting the elections will then be the strategy," he Tajernia said.
"Participating in such an election would be like taking part in a horse race where only one of the competitors has a horse, and the winner has been decided beforehand," he said.
In an interview with Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper to be published on Tuesday, Khatami expressed hope Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would help resolve the crisis soon.
"I hope for a solution by Friday," Khatami told the paper.
Friday is the last day for the Guardian Council to complete its vetting of candidates.
Khatami's allies accuse the council of seeking to help conservative allies reverse their loss to reformists in the 2000 parliamentary elections.
They say they will be unable to contest about 190 of parliament's seats unless the Guardian Council backs down.
But Guardian Council head Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said around 5,000 people had now been approved to run in the vote, an average of 17 candidates for each seat.
"Does the figure imply a lack of equal opportunity for competition?" Jannati said.
Public interest in the political row has so far been muted, with no sign of any mass protests to back reformists, whose failure to overcome stiff resistance to change by powerful conservatives has caused their popularity to wane considerably in recent years.
The Guardian Council has been a key weapon for Iran's conservatives, who fear that Khatami's efforts at reform could undermine the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Designed as a counterweight to the elected parliament, the council can veto legislation it deems unconstitutional or incompatible with Islamic Shariah law -- a power it has used repeatedly to block reforms since Khatami's 1997 election.
It can also bar candidates it considers unfit for office for reasons such as lack of commitment to the constitution or to the clerical establishment headed by Khamenei.
The Guardian Council says it is reviewing more than 3,000 appeals lodged by disqualified candidates and has so far reinstated around 400.
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