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Iran reformists confirm poll boycott
Iran's main reformist party announced Thursday that it would go ahead with a boycott of key polls in two weeks, charging that a review ordered by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had resulted in the reinstatement of just 51 of some 2,500 candidates blacklisted. The Guardians Council â the conservative-dominated vetting body which ordered the original blacklist â insisted its review was still under way and more candidates might yet be reinstated. But reformist MPs, who have already seen much of their legislative programme vetoed by the Guardians, made clear their patience was at an end. Some 130 deputies, who have been holding a sit-in at parliament since Jan. 11, announced they would now make good their threat to resign their seats and were consequently abandoning their original protest. "It's the worst possible outcome," said Islamic Iran Participation Front leader Mohammad Reza Khatami, brother of pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami, as he announced his party's decision to boycott the Feb. 20 parliamentary elections.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2004-02-07 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=25757 |