TEHRAN, IRAN, 23-FEB-1999: Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami (L) visits headquarters of the municipal elections February 23
at the Iranian Interior Ministry where workers are putting final touches
to the preparation of the election that will take place this week. Some
300,000 candidates, including more than 5,000 women, started campaigning
for the 200,000 municipal council seats in this week's elections, the first
in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution and a vital test for democratic
reforms, the interior ministry said. Photo by Atta Kenare, AFP. Thanks
to Payman Arabshahi.
Cancellation threat hangs over landmark Tehran poll
on last day of campaign
TEHRAN, Feb 24 (AFP) - Candidates in Tehran's first-ever municipal elections
spent the last official day of campaigning Wednesday unsure whether the
landmark vote would go ahead as the conservative-dominated election Supervision
Council threatened to declare it null and void.
A dozen supporters of moderate President Mohammed Khatami, including
the head of the main reformist list of candidates, Vice President Abdullah
Nuri, continued to present themselves despite an order from the Supervision
Council's head, conservative MP Ali Movahedi-Savoji, barring them from
standing.
The reformist-controlled interior ministry continued to include the
disqualified candidates in lists of hopefuls to be displayed at polling
stations around the capital.
"All the candidacies published in recent days within the legal
time period are valid and the candidates can campaign," the ministry
insisted in a statement Tuesday.
But Movahedi-Savoji threatened to cancel the whole election process
in the capital if the ministry did not remove the 12 candidates' names.
"If the interior ministry does not take appropriate measures to
remove the names of the 12 disqualified candidates from the election list
currently at the polling stations in Tehran, the council will announce
the election process in the capital null and void," he told the official
news agency IRNA late Tuesday night.
The conservative MP rejected a ruling by an arbitration committee set
up to mediate between his council and the interior ministry.
"The Sunday night stipulation by the committee which had been set
up to resolve the differences in matters of qualifications and competency
of the candidates has nothing to do with the decisions of the central Supervision
Council," he said.
"Decisions reached by the council in the qualification or disqualification
of candidates are final and enforceable and no one has the authority or
power to reject them," he insisted.
Control of the capital with its 10 million-plus population is the principal
prize in Friday's landmark municipal elections as both conservatives and
reformers seek to consolidate their local power base ahead of next year's
key parliamentary elections.
In the vast Tehran satellite town of Karaj, a knife-fight between supporters
of two rival candidates resulted in six people being stabbed, two of them
seriously, the hardline daily Jomhuri Eslami reported Wednesday.
The reformers, who are pledging "real participation in power"
-- a reflection of the new political openness at the top of Khatami's agenda
-- are hoping to benefit from the wave of public enthusiasm for reform
that brought him to power in 1997, when he gained 75 percent of the vote
in Tehran.
Facing the reformers is the right-wing conservative list, headed by
Ali Kamushi, head of the powerful Chamber of Commerce and an influential
member of the Tehran bazaar, a stronghold of traditionalists.
About 330,000 candidates, including 5,000 women, have been approved
so far to stand in elections for 200,000 council seats across the country.
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