Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday ordered hard-liners to review their decision to block reformists from standing in next month's presidential polls, fearing the disqualifications could result in an election boycott. State radio said Khamenei told the Guardians Council, a political watchdog which vets candidacies, to reconsider the applications of Mostafa Moin and Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh.Reformists have slammed the disqualifications as a "coup d'etat" by hard-liners eager to put an end to their movement. "It is desired that all people in the country from different political interests have the opportunity to take part in the big test of the elections," Khamenei was quoted as telling the head of the Guardians Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati. The council announced late Sunday that just six men out of a record 1,014 would-be candidates were fit to stand in the polls to succeed incumbent reformist President Mohammad Khatami. Moin was the candidate chosen by the main reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), and seen as the only credible pro-reform figure trying to stand.
In a statement, the IIPF said he had been barred for "defending equal rights for all Iranians, especially women, the young and ethnic minorities", "insisting on human rights" and seeking to "eliminate parallel bodies in the fields of intelligence, culture, foreign policy and the economy". Mehr-Alizadeh is currently a vice president in Khatami's Cabinet, and was running as an independent. With Moin and other reformists eliminated, the choice of candidates is currently limited to powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani four veterans of the hard-line Revolutionary Guards close to Khamenei and a centrist cleric.
The reformist camp reacted angrily to the disqualifications, with some calls raised for an election boycott. The council's latest move to block political moderates has revived memories of tense February 2004 parliamentary elections, when almost all reformist candidates were disqualified. The assembly is now controlled by hard-liners. Khamenei also intervened during that crisis, but the Guardians Council largely maintained its blacklist. The supreme leader's concern over the turnout reflects the importance which the 26-year-old Islamic regime attaches to a voters' figure seen as a gauge of public support.