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Iran
Most Iranian candidates not reinstated
2004-01-31
The governance crisis in Iran edged toward a climax Friday as conservative clerics refused to reinstate most of the reformist candidates who had been disqualified from next month’s parliamentary elections.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it. We're in charge and you ain't."
The Guardian Council relented on only 1,160 of the 3,600 candidates it had dismissed almost three weeks ago in what analysts termed a brazen effort to clear the field of all but conservative candidates. It was not immediately clear how many of the 80 members of parliament barred from seeking reelection had been reinstated.
Only the ones who can be bought... cheaply.
The apparently final decision by the council, a 12-member appointive body with authority to reject legislation as well as screen candidates, was announced on state radio and the council’s Web site late on the Muslim day of rest. It produced no immediate official reaction, but the number of restored candidacies fell far short of the full reinstatement demanded by outraged members of parliament, who have staged daily sit-ins at the legislative chamber in central Tehran. The striking lawmakers had anticipated the council’s limited retreat, however, and issued a statement repeating their vows to resign or otherwise disable the government, whose day-to-day functioning has been entirely in reformist hands for four years.
Let's see if the have the danglers to actually do it...
A leader of the largest reform party spoke of pulling out of the Feb. 20 balloting. "The council statement means there is no option left for us but to boycott this sham election," said Saeed Shariati of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, in remarks cited by the Associated Press. "As Iran’s biggest party, almost all our candidates have been barred." Shariati added, however, that an official announcement about the reformists’ intentions would wait until Monday.
Gonna wait and see what offers he gets over the weekend, is he?
"A lot of it is political rhetoric," said Shirzad Bozorgnehr, a senior editor of Iran News, an independent English-language daily in Tehran, referring to the threats. "It’s hard to discern between the talk and real decisions that will result in action." Bozorgnehr said the impact of the council’s decision would become apparent only after reformists saw which candidates had been validated and which remained disqualified. "The problem is that right now we don’t know who they are. Are the most prominent reformists restored, people who matter and who will lead? Or are they insignificant people?" he said.
My guess is that the insignificant have the edge. What's yours?
The council, which answers only to Iran’s top cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, suggested it was being generous. "Approving such a high number of parliamentary hopefuls is nearly unprecedented in the history of the Iranian parliament," it said in a statement. The council also denied a formal request to postpone the election. The request was made by Iran’s reformist interior minister, Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari, who said the mass disqualification and the controversy that followed made it impossible for the ministry to mount "a proper election." The bid followed a vow by Iran’s governors to withhold their own crucial cooperation in setting up polling places. Similar threats from other elements of the reform movement, including student leaders, are widely seen as meant to stiffen the spine of Mohammad Khatami.
You have to let Jello sit for a really long time before it actually gets stiff...
The reformist president, who disdains confrontation, has sought to restore the candidacies by negotiating with the Guardian Council and parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi, who promised "good results."
That was just before he became pregnant with Rafsanjani's love child...
"To shut down the elections means to shut down democracy, and God does not want such a thing for our people," Khatami said this week after turning down the resignations of dozens of top officials incensed over the candidate bans.
Does anyone need any further proof as to whose side Khatami is on in all of this?
Posted by:Dan Darling

#2  

Iran does matter, and who wins is very important. OK, neither side in this dispute is very friendly to us. The point at issue is critical, though--is Islam compatible with a democracy?

Remember that Iran has been the shining example for Muslims around the world. (Up until the Taliban.) Maybe they were "only Shi'ites," but they succeeded in overthrowing a Western-style
regime and creating their own Islamic state, in which the Mullahs (representing God) make sure that all laws and representatives agree with Islamic law. Their compromise between democracy and Islam (give the Mullahs the veto
power) seems to be the most popular Islamic theory of democracy.

People pay attention to Iran: they were heroes. If the Iranians, without pressure from outside, spontaneously reject the Mullah veto, that says to the world that there's something wrong with either the theory or the practice of Mullah-veto government. Even if the problem is only with the "practice," that says that Muslims can't automatically trust Mullahs; that somebody needs to keep them honest.

In the current situation it doesn't look to me like a battle between Mullahs (which wouldn't help us that much), but a battle between Mullahs and everybody else. If the common Muslim has the right to judge the Mullahs, they're a long way towards a real democracy, and farther away from the Islamofacists.

That's why I get itchy when I hear people talking about invading Iran. If the revolt is spontaneous, Muslims around the world have to think seriously about how much power to give their Imams. If we have a hand in an Iranian revolt, world Muslims can ignore the serious issues and blame everything on us.

Posted by: James   2004-1-31 3:19:44 PM  

#1  who gives a freak--its an intramural fight between moronic islamo barbarians--its not a dem/repub squabble--its a team fight in the clubhouse of moonbattery--why pick sides--its stalin/trotsky--they should all be hung from the nearest lamppost in north tehran by their turbans
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI   2004-1-31 1:51:16 AM  

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