Elections to go as scheduled, Iran's supreme leader says

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's supreme leader opposed postponing Feb. 20 elections, effectively siding with hard-liners in a crisis that has paralyzed the nation's political system, a prominent lawmaker told The Associated Press Tuesday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the country's reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, during crisis talks Tuesday that parliamentary elections must be held as scheduled, lawmaker Rajabali Mazrouei said.

"The leader insisted that elections must be held on Feb. 20 under any circumstances," said Mazrouei, a reformist who has been barred by hard-liners from running in the polls.

The meeting between Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, and the embattled president was seen as a last chance to ease Iran's worst political crisis in years.

The meeting was also attended by parliamentary speaker Mahdi Karroubi and Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the hard-line head of judiciary.

Earlier Tuesday, scores of reformist lawmakers called for a postponement of the parliamentary elections.

How, or even whether, elections could proceed Feb. 20 remained uncertain amid boycott calls over the hard-line Guardian Council's disqualification of thousands of reformists who had applied to run for office. Those disqualified included 80 sitting lawmakers, and efforts to reinstate all candidates thus far have failed.

After Khamenei's comments Tuesday, Iran's provincial governors said in a statement posted on the Interior Ministry's Web site that they won't hold elections.

Tuesday's meeting was considered crucial because Khamenei hand- picks Guardian Council members and, with the power to overrule any legal body in Iran, his intervention could end the crisis. Besides having the authority to reinstate candidates it disqualified, the Guardian Council also controls the election date.

At an earlier meeting Tuesday, more than 70 reformist lawmakers urged Khatami to push for a postponement, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The lawmakers also told Khatami negotiations with hard-liners over the election must include reinstatement of all would-be candidates barred by the Guardian Council, IRNA quoted Mohammad Reza Khatami, vice speaker of the parliament and the president's brother, as saying.

"We insisted on two demands: Elections must be postponed and all candidates disqualified illegally must be reinstated," IRNA quoted Khatami, who also is among the disqualified lawmakers, as saying.

Meanwhile, the reformist-controlled Interior Ministry banned a demonstration by university students planned for Wednesday to denounce hard-liners. Student leaders also threatened to boycott classes if free elections are not ensured.

Reformist leaders say they have urged students not to hold street demonstrations because rallies against the unelected clerics will give hard-line vigilantes and police a pretext for cracking down.

In June, student-led protests against plans to privatize universities quickly snowballed into displays of opposition to the hard-line clerical establishment, with protesters daring to shout slogans against Khamenei.

The demonstrations faded after hard-liners deployed hundreds of police in the streets and vigilantes and thugs attacked protesters with knives and sticks.

In daring comments Tuesday, reformist lawmaker Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeini accused Khamenei of being behind the disqualifications.

"It's actually the leader who has effectively worked to undermine reformers in the past few years. Members of the Guardian Council carry out his orders," Khoeini told a student meeting at Amir Kabir University on Tuesday.

Khatami's cabinet ministers already have said they support an election delay until free and fair elections can be ensured. And the president himself has vowed his government will "hold only competitive, free and fair elections."

Mazrouei said president Khatami reportedly disagreed with Khamenei and that his government will make a final decision on Wednesday.

After protests, the Guardian Council reinstated 1,160 lower- profile names among the 3,600 people it originally had disqualified from running for office. However, it still bars more than 2,400 people, including prominent reformists.

As leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the country's largest reformist party, Mohammad Reza Khatami announced Monday that his group would boycott the Feb. 20 polls. The day before, more than 120 lawmakers tendered their resignations, saying there was no point in holding elections whose outcome was a foregone conclusion.

Without the Front, hard-line candidates likely would easily retake control of parliament with an expected low turnout. Reformists had won the parliament in 2000 for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and used it as a platform to press for social and political reforms.

Copyright C 2004 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.