ISLAMSHAHR, Iran (AFP) — Reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami on Tuesday urged Iranians to vote en masse in this week's parliamentary elections despite the disqualification by hardliners of hundreds of his allies.
"The vote is the ultimate criteria. Those who do not believe in the vote are not the friends of the people," he told hundreds of supporters gathered for a rally in the low-income town of Islamshahr just outside Iran.
"People want freedom, independence and the Islamic republic."
"Freedom that is freedom to choose your own future, freedom to choose your own political system and the freedom to hold your leaders to account and freedom to make change without resorting to violence," he said.
The Guardians Council, an unelected body of jurists and clerics, disqualified hundreds of reformist candidates from Friday's vote on grounds including insufficient loyalty to the Islamic revolution.
The main reformist coalition inspired by Khatami has said its chances of taking control of the parliament from the conservatives have been wrecked as it can only compete for less than half the seats in the chamber.
But they will be desperately hoping its supporters still turn out to vote to ensure they are not completely wiped out from the conservative-controlled parliament.
Khatami maintained two years of virtual silence after Ahmadinejad took over as president in 2005 but has made a conspicuous return to the political scene in recent months bitterly criticising the government's policies.
While hopes that Khatami would oversee a major change in Iran were stymied by hardliners and his own innate caution, he remains a popular figure whose learned rhetoric contrasts starkly with the bombast of Ahmadinejad.
He has been leading reformist criticism of the disqualifications by the Guardians Council, which he last month described as a "catastrophe" for the Islamic republic.
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