Iran's Clerics End Ban on Some Candidates

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iran-Elections.html

January 30, 2004
Iran's Clerics End Ban on Some Candidates
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's hard-line Guardian Council on Friday reinstated a third of the candidates it disqualified from next month's legislative elections but rejected calls by liberals to postpone the vote.

A leading reformist said the vote would still be undemocratic with the limited reinstatements and threatened a mass boycott by liberal politicians.

"The council statement means there is no option left for us but to boycott this sham election," said Saeed Shariati, a leader of the biggest reformist party, Islamic Iran Participation Front.

<snip>It came a day after Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari wrote the council demanding the elections be postponed.

"Due to lack of a real competition and failure to meet the basic demands of prospective candidates for free elections ... I demand the postponement of the elections," Lari said.

On Friday, the Guardian Council also rejected any postponement.

<snip>