Iran's largest reformist student movement denounced President Mohammad Khatami on Sunday for giving in to hard-line demands to hold a legislative election he himself has called unfair.
The Office for Fostering Unity called on Iranians to boycott Friday's election, from which about 2,400 reformist candidates were barred by hard-liners. Liberal lawmakers and academics have dubbed the election a sham, reformist parties have boycotted the polls and hundreds of approved candidates withdrew their names in protest.
"Through accepting to hold this sham election ... Khatami effectively gives priority to implementing illegal demands of unelected conservatives at the cost of slaughtering justice, freedom and people's rights," the office said in a statement.
A reluctant Khatami gave in to an order from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to hold the vote but said it would be unfair and give people little motivation to participate.
"Dialogue to reform the establishment in the way Khatami has defined has reached a dead end," the statement said.
"The absolute power of appointed institutions and their resistance against the voted reform movement has revealed the inefficiency of reforms under the existing structure of the establishment," the statement said.
Meanwhile, prominent jailed reformer Hashem Aghajari called on the nation to send a message to the ruling establishment by boycotting the polls.
"The sham election is the end of reforms within the establishment. The Iranian nation has learned now that there is no hope of a democratic change under the ruling system," Aghajari wrote in a letter from Evin prison, where he is serving a four-year term for questioning clerical rule.
The letter was made available by Aghajari's wife, Zahra Behnoodi.
Aghajari said the solution to the deadlock was "referendum, amending the constitution and bringing fundamental changes in the ruling system."
Iran's biggest political crisis in years was triggered when clerics of the Guardian Council -- an unelected hard-line body that vets candidates -- last month banned more than 3,600 candidates, nearly all of them supporters of efforts to expand Western-style democracy and loosen strict interpretations of Islamic codes in areas such as social activities and the media.
About 130 members of parliament resigned in protest and almost all reformist parties, including the largest -- the Islamic Iran Participation Front -- have announced a boycott of the elections.
The Guardian Council, whose members are hand-picked by Khamenei, reinstated about 1,200 candidates in stages after sit-ins and protests by liberal politicians and backers. The rest remained blackballed -- all leading reformists, including 80 sitting lawmakers.
Since campaigning began Thursday, more than 607 candidates have withdrawn from the race, the Interior Ministry said. Some apparently pulled out to protest the disqualifications, while others hoped to increase chances of hard-line candidates running under the new name of "Developers of Islamic Iran."
Prominent hard-liners Habibollah Asgaroladi and Assadollah Badamchian said they withdrew because "we consider Developers of Islamic Iran as ourselves."
The group consists of extremists within the hard-line camp; reformers charge that the group's 30 candidates were chosen by Khamenei.
A government survey predicted that only about 30 percent of 46 million eligible voters would take part in the polls.
A low voter turnout would be widely interpreted as a powerful sign of support for the nation's reformist politicians.
Still, in the absence of rivals, conservatives are expected to easily win.
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
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS