Crisis as Iranian election row deepens

MOST of Iran's Cabinet ministers and vice-presidents have submitted their resignations, accusing hardliners of trying to engineer a sympathetic parliament by disqualifying thousands of prospective election candidates.

As Iran's deepest political crisis in years expanded, Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi warned that, unless the disqualifications are reversed, "the country will face many problems, both at home and abroad".

Government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh said letters of resignation from most of Iran's six vice-presidents and most of its 24 Cabinet ministers were handed to President Mohammad Khatami last week. He did not identify the resigning politicians.

"Such disqualifications of prospective candidates is against democracy," Abtahi said after a Cabinet meeting. "The 1979 Islamic revolution was based on democracy, and such methods (by hardliners) damage our Islamic democracy and turn elections into sham elections." The disqualifications of more than a third of the 8,200 candidates in next month's parliamentary elections were made by Iran's Guardian Council, an unelected body controlled by hardliners. Those disqualified include 80 sitting reformist MPs, who have been holding sit-ins and dawn-to-dusk fasts to protest the decision. The council on Tuesday reinstated 200 of the disqualified candidates and said it would reconsider the rest. However, reformists said the reinstatements were not enough.

Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari presented a report during yesterday's Cabinet session saying the hardliners want to secure at least 180 seats in the 290-seat parliament.