Some 550 candidates cleared to run in Iran's parliamentary election have pulled out because thousands of reformist candidates have been banned, the interior ministry was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Reformists have predicted Iran's Feb. 20 parliamentary poll will be a "sham" and a "bloodless coup" because the 12-man Guardian Council, an unelected conservative group, has banned more than 2,500 of the 8,200 aspiring candidates, mainly reformists.
Those blocked include 80 mem-bers of the 290-seat parliament.
"Up until now 550 candidates have withdrawn from the election," said the reformist Yas-e No newspaper, quoting the interior ministry.
The 550 candidates were following in the steps of the country's largest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), which had already said it would boycott the election. It was not immediately clear how many of them were members of the IIPF.
A conservative political group dismissed accusations the election had been rigged. Members of the newly formed Alliance for the Advancement of Islamic Iran (AAII), which is putting forward candidates for Tehran's 30 parliamentary seats, defended the candidate bans.
"The disqualifications were carried out within the framework of our law," said AAII candidate Gholamali Hadadadel.
"Therefore, we don't think this is an unfair election," Hadadadel, who is leader of the minority conservative faction in the outgoing parliament, told a news conference.
Reformist allies of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who won a large majority in 2000 parliamentary elections, argue they will be unable to compete for over half of parliament's 290 seats.
Those barred include around 80 current legislators, many of whom were deemed to lack loyalty to Islam.
Analysts say conservatives, who in contrast with reformists reject any watering down of the Islamic political system imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution, stand to benefit from the candidate bans and reformist election boycotts.
Conservatives, who can count on a hard core of loyal support, will also likely profit from the expected low turnout among Iran's 46 million eligible voters, many of whom have grown disillusioned with Khatami's inability to overcome stiff hardline resistance to his reformist agenda.
Turnout plunged to just 11 percent in Tehran in city council elections last February, allowing conservatives to sweep reformists out of the council altogether -- a result which AAII members said was a model for next week's poll.
"The parliamentary vote is the second step after the city council elections that our society is taking," Hadadadel said.
Sitting beneath a campaign banner which read "Development is not only our dream, it's our programme" AAII candidates said they would prioritize economic issues in the next parliament.
Reformists have been criticized by many Iranians for focusing too heavily on political and social reforms, which they were unable to implement, while living standards fell.
AAII candidate Ahmad Tavakoli, who stood against Khatami in 1997 elections, said his party was open to a restoration of ties with arch-enemy Washington, broken off in 1980, provided US officials "change their dictatorial behavior toward Iran."
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS