TEHRAN, 23 January 2004 — Fifty-four members of the Iranian Parliament pledged yesterday not to take part in next month’s parliamentary elections if the poll does not give voters a free choice of candidates.
The 54 MPs were collecting more signatures to their commitment among reformist colleagues in the 290-seat Parliament who are facing wholesale rejection by the conservative candidate-vetting body, the Guardian Council.
The pledge by the lawmakers came as scores of hard-liners attacked a reformist gathering in central Iran, injuring at least five people in the first outbreak of violence of a tense build-up to the parliamentary elections.
Political tensions are running high in Iran after the Guardian Council vetoed thousands of reformist candidates from standing in the Feb. 20 vote. But until now most Iranians have appeared unmoved by the political standoff and there had been no reports of large street protests or clashes.
The violence erupted Wednesday when a speaker at a pro-reform gathering in the central city of Hamedan accused the Guardian Council of disregarding supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s advice for the disqualifications to be reviewed.
“Some 200 hard-liners attacked the podium, broke the microphone and punched people,” a parliamentarian, who asked not to be named, said.
At least five people, including Hamedan MP Hossein Loqmanian, were injured, and one person was hospitalized, the official IRNA news agency reported.
It said the attackers in Hamedan chanted slogans such as “Death to hypocrites” and “We are ready to sacrifice our lives”.
Hard-line vigilante groups fiercely loyal to Iran’s clerical establishment have attacked reformist gatherings and student protests in the past.
Reformers insist the 24-year-old Islamic Republic has to become a more democratic state where the rule of law is paramount if it is to survive. Hard-liners fear reforms might open the floodgates of change and sweep aside clerical rule.
Liberals accuse the Guardian Council of trying to clear the way for conservatives to regain control of Parliament, which they lost to reformists in the 2000 parliamentary election. The council judged many of those disqualified to have displayed insufficient loyalty to the constitution and the system of governance.
