Only 22 Reformist Disqualifications Reversed
by: Arash Sigarchi-- 2008.02.14
The spokesperson for the powerful Guardian Council, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, announced yesterday the Council's decision to reverse the disqualification of 282 candidates who had previously been barred by the administrative and oversight committees from running in upcoming parliamentary elections in March.
The wide scope of disqualifications angered many prominent politicians in the Islamic Republic. Prominent figures such as former presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Khatami, and former Majlis speaker Karoubi, publicly criticized the trend of disqualifications and even complained to the supreme leader. Several other reformist figures, such as former president Khatami's top aide, Mohammad Reza Aref, resigned from candidacy though they were qualified by the guardian Council. Aref announced that he is resigning to protest disqualifications. Several prominent ayatollahs, such as grand ayatollahs Montazeri and Makarem Shirazi, and ayatollahs Haeri Shirazi, Noormofidi, and Amini also protested the disqualifications.
Finally, the Guardian Council's website quoted the Council's spokesperson, Kadkhodaei, that, "We will announce a new list of the qualified candidates in the coming days."
Although the names of qualified candidates have not been officially announced yet, the Fars news agency published a list of 273 qualified candidates on its main page last night.
In a related news report, Mehr news agency reported that with the additional 22 qualified reformist candidates, the number of reformist candidates vying for Majlis seats has increased slightly.
Officials from the reformist coalition told a Mehr reporter that they have heard the news of their qualification, but have not received any official confirmations yet.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the reformist E'temad Melli party, Esmaeil Gerami Moghaddam, confirmed reports of the qualification of additional reformist candidates. The names of several members of the E'temad Melli party appear on the two unofficial lists of qualified candidates. The party's spokesperson had previously announced that close to 70 percent of the party's candidates had been disqualified.
According to news reports, the Guardian Council has reversed the disqualification of Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, Ali Eshraghi.
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