TEHRAN, 7 June 2007 — A decision to hold Iran’s parliamentary vote just a week before its main annual holiday has sparked protests from moderates who fear the timing could impede their chances, media reported yesterday. The Guardians Council, an unelected electoral watchdog that also vets all legislation, said last week the crucial vote would take place on March 14, just ahead of two weeks of New Year holidays that begin on March 20.

“The gentlemen have chosen this date as they might be worried about the poll results and the subsequent objections,” former Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari wrote in the Etemad Melli daily. “One can understand the opposition’s doubts and concerns, given that the organizers and the watchdogs belong to the same political faction,” said the moderate cleric who served in the reformist Cabinet of Mohammad Khatami.

Mousavi Lari complained that the date was “inappropriate” at a time when the country enters a two-week holiday during which newspapers generally cease publishing, leaving news agencies and state broadcasters as the only media.

“The candidates should have the chance to monitor the election in order to be assured about the polls, their health and the count,” he said. “Parties and groups will not be able to follow up on their demands.”

The timing for all elections is proposed by the Interior Ministry, which organizes the votes, but it also needs the approval of the Guardians Council. An aide to former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani feared the religious holidays could be manipulated by certain political factions to garner votes.

“Those who have set this date may have wanted to exploit the emotional mourning atmosphere in favor of a certain group,” Hossein Marashi, former head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage Organization, said in the centrist Ham Mihan daily.

The election for Parliament, currently dominated by conservatives, is seen as a key test of the various conservative, moderate and reformist factions as they jockey for position ahead of the next presidential vote.

Iranian media have spoken of a possible alliance in the vote between supporters of Rafsanjani, Khatami and ex-Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi as a moderate bulwark against hardliners loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Meanwhile, two Iranian-Americans detained in the Islamic Republic on spying charges have “accepted that they carried out some activities,” an Iranian judge was quoted as saying yesterday.

Judge Hossein Haddad said a third dual national, journalist Parnaz Azima, had been detained for cooperating with “anti-revolutionary” media. But a judiciary source later told Reuters she was released on bail and was not now under arrest.

The Iranian judiciary said on May 29 that Azima, academic Haleh Esfandiari and social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh were accused of spying.

The United States has condemned Iran’s detention of American citizens and called for their release. The detentions come at a time of increased tension between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, which Western powers suspect is a cover for building atom bombs. Iran says it wants only to generate electricity.