TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's former presidents and an ex-parliament speaker said on Sunday they are to appeal to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to allow banned reformists and moderate conservative candidates to stand in March polls.
Former presidents Mohammad Khatami, a reformist, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatic conservative, met with former speaker Mehdi Karroubi late Saturday to discuss how to lift the ban, the Mehr news agency reported.
Iran's conservative vetting body has disqualified nearly a third of the would-be candidates, including half of the reformist hopefuls, from standing in the March 14 parliamentary elections.
"Each of us will start consultations with all concerned bodies and officials... so that ultimately with opinions and guidelines of the supreme leader it becomes possible for... the moderate figures to run," Karroubi said.
He said the trio would also try to lobby support from Iran's powerful electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, which has the final say over the fate of the candidates.
In the parliamentary elections of 2004, the Guardians Council, which is run by conservatives, banned thousands of moderate candidates.
The conservatives won control of parliament in a hugely controversial election in 2004 when 2,300 candidates, mostly reformists, were initially disqualified.
Interior ministry committees in charge of screening the runners on Thursday announced that around 5,000, representing 69 percent of the registered hopefuls have been approved. Most of the reformist candidates were banned.
Several reformist leaders, including former first vice president Mohammad Reza Aref, a candidate in Tehran, have warned of a possible "withdrawal of reformists from the elections" until the banned candidates are approved.
Karroubi, however, said Saturday's meeting resulted in a decision "to encourage all the parties to actively participate in the elections to defuse the enemies' conspiracy, which is to discourage people from voting."
Rejected candidates had until January 26 to appeal to the surveillance commissions of the Guardians Council. If unsuccessful, they can then appeal directly to the Guardians Council itself, which has 20 days to rule.
The Guardians council will unveil a final list of candidates on March 4 before the start of one week's campaigning.
Half of the candidates from a broad coalition, inspired by Khatami and bringing together 21 reformist groups, have been banned as well as 70 percent of the candidates from Karroubi's pro-reform National Confidence party.
The coalition also includes the Executives of Construction party, founded by Rafsanjani's former ministers and allies.
The three clerics' initiative of setting up a campaign to bring back reformist hopefuls to the elections was a rare move, especially the call for the supreme leader's intervention.
The speaker of the reformist coalition, Abdollah Naseri, said the senior clerics would meet with Khamenei.
"It was agreed that each of them follow up on this indefensible issue in talks with the supreme leader," Naseri said on the coalition's official website.
As the Islamic republic's supreme leader, Khamenei has the final say on all state matters and plays the role of arbiter to settle differences.
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