DUBAI, Feb 16 (NNN-STATE TV) – Iran’s week-long parliamentary election campaign started on Thursday, a vote seen as a popularity test for the clerical establishment, at a time when relations with Washington are at their worst, since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The Guardian Council, which must approve candidates, rejected around 6,850 moderate or conservative hopefuls, in favour of hardliners from among the 14,000 applicants seeking to contest the Feb 21 vote.
The 7,150 candidates who are running for parliamentary elections have started campaigning on Thursday.
Pragmatist President, Hassan Rouhani, criticised the disqualifications, but, like supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he called for a high turnout, as the country faces challenges over its disputed nuclear programme.
Khamenei, the final authority in Iran’s complex system of clerical rule, backed the Guardian Council, saying, the next parliament was no place for those scared of speaking out against foreign enemies.
Tensions with the United States spiked since 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions.
The crisis worsened when Iran’s most prominent military commander, Qassem Soleimani, was killed by a U.S. drone in Baghdad in Jan 3, which led to Iran retaliating against U.S. targets in Iraq on Jan 8.
Pro-reform politicians said, they had no candidates to stand for 230 of the 290 seats in parliament, saying, Iranians’ demands for a “free and fair” election were not met because of the large numbers disqualified.
The Council cited various grounds for the rejections, such as “corruption and being unfaithful to Islam.” Some 58 million Iranians out of 83 million are eligible to vote.
While supporters of the establishment will vote for hard-line candidates, moderates are struggling to mobilise their supporters, who are disappointed with Rouhani’s failure to ease social and political restrictions.– NNN-STATE TV