Some 550 candidates cleared to run in Iran's parliamentary election have pulled out because thousands of reformist candidates have been banned, the interior ministry was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Reformists have predicted Iran's Feb. 20 parliamentary poll will be a "sham" and a "bloodless coup" because the 12-man Guardian Council, an unelected conservative group, has banned more than 2,500 of the 8,200 aspiring candidates, mainly reformists.
Those blocked include 80 mem-bers of the 290-seat parliament.
"Up until now 550 candidates have withdrawn from the election," said the reformist Yas-e No newspaper, quoting the interior ministry.
The 550 candidates were following in the steps of the country's largest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), which had already said it would boycott the election. It was not immediately clear how many of them were members of the IIPF.
A conservative political group dismissed accusations the election had been rigged. Members of the newly formed Alliance for the Advancement of Islamic Iran (AAII), which is putting forward candidates for Tehran's 30 parliamentary seats, defended the candidate bans.
"The disqualifications were carried out within the framework of our law," said AAII candidate Gholamali Hadadadel.
"Therefore, we don't think this is an unfair election," Hadadadel, who is leader of the minority conservative faction in the outgoing parliament, told a news conference.
Reformist allies of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who won a large majority in 2000 parliamentary elections, argue they will be unable to compete for over half of parliament's 290 seats.
Those barred include around 80 current legislators, many of whom were deemed to lack loyalty to Islam.
Analysts say conservatives, who in contrast with reformists reject any watering down of the Islamic political system imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution, stand to benefit from the candidate bans and reformist election boycotts.
Conservatives, who can count on a hard core of loyal support, will also likely profit from the expected low turnout among Iran's 46 million eligible voters, many of whom have grown disillusioned with Khatami's inability to overcome stiff hardline resistance to his reformist agenda.
Turnout plunged to just 11 percent in Tehran in city council elections last February, allowing conservatives to sweep reformists out of the council altogether -- a result which AAII members said was a model for next week's poll.
"The parliamentary vote is the second step after the city council elections that our society is taking," Hadadadel said.
Sitting beneath a campaign banner which read "Development is not only our dream, it's our programme" AAII candidates said they would prioritize economic issues in the next parliament.
Reformists have been criticized by many Iranians for focusing too heavily on political and social reforms, which they were unable to implement, while living standards fell.
AAII candidate Ahmad Tavakoli, who stood against Khatami in 1997 elections, said his party was open to a restoration of ties with arch-enemy Washington, broken off in 1980, provided US officials "change their dictatorial behavior toward Iran."
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS