Ayatollah may act to end Iran's poll crisis

Supreme leader calls for calm as MPs protest over disqualification of reformist candidates from February election
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, moved yesterday to try to dampen the furious row over the disqualification of hundreds of reformist candidates before next month's elections which has prompted scores of MPs to hold a sit-in in the parliament building for a second day.

The ayatollah hinted at a compromise by saying he was prepared to intervene to resolve the crisis.

"At this stage, there are legal channels and everyone should abide by the law. If things pass the legal stages... and get to a point where it becomes sensitive and requires a decision, I will intervene," state television quoted him as saying.

Khamenei's plea for calm came as the reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, and the speaker of parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, held talks with him and his conservative allies. MPs are outraged by the conservative Guardian Council's ban on hundreds of reform-minded candidates from standing in the February 20 parliamentary elections.

The 12-member council, which comprises hardliners appointed by Khamenei, disqualified more than 80 reformist MPs from seeking another term. About 900 of the 1,700 people hoping to contest seats in Tehran were also struck from the ballot.

The criteria for the vetting process are vague but are supposed to determine if a candidate has ties to the previous monarchy, a clean legal record and is sufficiently loyal to Iran's theocratic system and its supreme leader, who controls the armed forces, state television and the judiciary.

Reformists said the move was a blatant attempt to stifle popular will and exposed the conservative clerical establishment's hostility to parliamentary democracy.

"Now we can see the Guardian Council wants to completely take over the system in a way that has nothing to do with democracy, because they don't believe in democratic institutions such as a parliament," a reformist MP, Ali Tajernia, who was participating in the sit-in at parliament, told the Guardian.

He and other more strident reformists expressed scepticism that the dispute could be resolved through negotiation, citing previous cases in which President Khatami's pleas were repeatedly ignored by the conservative clergy.

Some reformists were calling for a boycott of the elections and a change to the constitution that would enhance the parliament's authority.

Tajernia, a member of the largest reformist party, the Participation Front, said it was time for ordinary Iranians to make themselves heard.

But it was unclear if the crisis would trigger street demonstrations among a disillusioned, youthful population that increasingly regards the reformists as apologists for the theocratic regime.

The disqualified candidates had until last night to appeal against the decision which would set in motion a review by the Guardian Council.

The crisis threatens to damage Iran's extensive efforts to clinch a trade agreement with the European Union, which has linked commercial issues to progress on political and human rights issues. The EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, was on a two-day visit to Iran during the crisis.