With the Iranian elections set to take place within a matter of days, the country has been thrown into its worst political crisis in 25 years, Roshanak Taghavi reports The anti-climax of Iran's 20 February parliamentary election saga began when the Guardian Council decided to bar over 3,600 Reformist candidates, including 87 sitting MPs, from running for office. The Guardian Council is an unelected body that must approve all Iranian political, economic and social policies before they are passed. For their part, the Reformists won control of the Iranian Majlis (parliament) in 2000 for the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, instituting a number of reforms that led to a relaxation of press laws and the improvement of women's rights. Iranian hardliners are set to win the majority of the 290 seats in the Majlis if the disqualified candidates are not reinstated. The majority of those banned were told that they had not properly adhered to Islamic jurisprudence. Elaheh Koolaee, a sitting MP who is a member of Iran's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, told Al-Ahram Weekly that she was officially disqualified for failing to commit to Islam, breaching the Iranian Constitution, and being linked to "illegal political groups" working against the interests of the country. She was not provided with any proof of her supposed wrongdoings, and was never told what groups she was allegedly associated with, she added. "There is no proof because I have no such connections," she said. Koolaee and 124 other MPs submitted letters of resignation last Monday after it became clear that the remaining reformist candidates and all disqualified MPs would not be welcomed back into the fold. They are currently waiting for their resignations to be formally accepted. Koolaee believes she was disqualified because she never hesitates to speak frankly about "the shortcomings and failures of Iranian regional and international foreign policy", and has ardently criticised the "authoritative and despotic" nature of the country's domestic policies. She and other Reformist MPs challenged the disqualifications by participating in a 26-day sit-in protest at the Majlis, ending last weekend. The protestors succeeded in persuading the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, to encourage a review of the disqualifications by the Guardian Council, leading to the reinstatement of 1,160 lower-profile candidates. Koolaee said that the protest concluded after negotiations between the Guardian Council and four government ministers over postponing elections ended in deadlock in late January. Elections remain set for 20 February. "There is no point in continuing our fight because the time to do so is over; there is no benefit in continuing," she said. She told the Weekly that President Mohammad Khatami's ministers were unable to reach a compromise with the Guardian Council because the Khatami government's "interpretation of the law of elections" acknowledges that Iranians have the capacity to elect leaders that will work for their best economic and social interests. The Guardian Council, on the other hand, has a "closed interpretation of these laws", and does not consider Iranians to be "mature" enough to elect the leaders that will work for their best interests, she said. Koolaee added that the Guardian Council therefore uses a "two-stage election model", whereby it determines the public's electoral options in stage one by disqualifying certain candidates so that those elected in stage two are sure to be endorsed by the Council. Khamenei called for an additional review of the candidates to be carried out by the Ministry of Intelligence -- controlled by Khatami's government -- after receiving considerable pressure from Speaker of Parliament Mehdi Karroubi, Khatami and protesting MPs. Despite an agreement that the Guardian Council would not contest the ministerial decision, thus far the Council has vetoed all but 51 of the 600 candidates approved by the Ministry. Approximately 11 of those reinstated were sitting MPs, and Koolaee said that she expected the Ministry to endorse more candidates. She did not believe, however, that she would be reinstated. Consequent to the crisis, the Islamic Iran Participation Front -- the country's largest pro-reform party -- has called for a boycott of what it deems to be sham elections. A majority of Iranians, disheartened by what appears to be the Khatami government's inability to instigate economic and social reforms and curtail the power of the Guardian Council, feel apathetic towards immanent elections, and are not expected to participate in great numbers. One 25-year-old man who works in his family's business in downtown Tehran told the Weekly that he and his friends would not be voting in the upcoming elections. "Do you know how many ignorant and needy Iranians there are because this government never gave them any chances? The Majlis talks, listens to the people, and says it will save them, but it has done nothing," he said. "The only people that will vote are those who will be served by voting. I, for one, am not voting." Koolaee said that she and her colleagues will continue to work hard to convince Iranians to vote because voting serves Iran's national and security interests. She told the Weekly that a conservative Iranian government would weaken the country's position externally. Democratic forces within the country, Koolaee reasons, must mobilize to "consolidate the democratic bases within the government" so that Iran will be able to "bargain" more effectively with foreign powers. "Although I believe that many will not participate in the campaign, I think reforms in our country cannot be stopped, and the whole of our government must face this as the reality of our country," she said. "The process of change will continue, as will our efforts to make a change. We will not stop."
