 |
|
Moin
is the candidate of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front
(IIPF). (Reuters)
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TEHRAN
,
May 24, 2005
(IslamOnline.net & News
Agencies) –
Iran
's Guardian Council reversed on
Tuesday, May 24, a ban on two reformists disqualified from next
month's presidential race.
The
council, the constitutional watchdog that vets election candidates,
agreed to allow former education minister Mostafa Moin and Vice
President for Sports Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh to stand in the June 17
elections, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
"As
you consider it desirable that all people in the country from
different interests have the opportunity to take part... the
competence of Mr Moin and Mr Mehr-Alizadeh is recognized," the
council's head, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, wrote to supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On
Monday, Khamenei urged the council to overturn its disqualification of
the two reformists.
He
stressed that a broad range of candidates is essential to
encourage the high voter turnout needed to send a message to
Iran
's enemies.
Intervention
Khamenei's
move came after
parliamentary speaker, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, called on him to
intervene in the growing dispute over the disqualification of Moin and
Mehralizadeh in order to encourage more Iranians to vote.
Only
six men out of a record 1,014 candidates were approved by the
12-member council to vie in the presidential race to succeed President
Mohammad Khatami, who is ineligible to run for a third consecutive
term.
They
include two times former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a
moderate conservative scholar and renowned powerbroker who leads
opinion polls.
The
disqualifications revived memories of the February 2004 parliamentary
elections when almost all reformist candidates were blocked from
standing.
On
Monday,
Tehran
University
students, long at the
forefront of the reform movement, staged their first demonstrations to
protest the disqualification of Moin.
Some
300 students took part in the protest, but they were peacefully
stopped by police, according to witnesses.
Moin
is the candidate chosen by the main reformist party, the Islamic Iran
Participation Front (IIPF), and seen as the only credible pro-reform
figure running for the post.
He
is an outspoken reformist who has
promised to tackle human rights abuses in
Iran
if elected, according to Reuters.
