The number of seats granted by the executive committee for the elections of next March 14th has fallen even further. A climate of pessimism reigns among Iranian reformists.

Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) - There were 909 reformists who had announced their candidacies in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iran.  But very few of them remain after the interior ministry, a member of the executive electoral committee, rejected the candidacy of another 180 reformists, with the result that only 138 will compete for the 31 seats that remain. 

In Iran, the process leading to the elections goes through a phase of analysis and verification in which the Guardians Council, appointed by the Supreme Leader - a post filled by the ayatollah Ali Khamenei - has the task of approving the candidacies for the presidency.  It also forms the executive committees in the various provinces that closely examine the candidacies for seats in parliament. 

It is the Guardians Council that has the last word on who can compete, and in the previous elections in 2004, it blocked the way for more than 2,000 candidates, most of them reformists, easing the ascent to power of the conservatives who as a result occupy a majority of the seats in parliament.

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the former vice president during the mandate of the reformist Khatami, is disappointed with the poor political landscape, and says "it now appears that there are only 31 seats available for the reformists, but the candidates are not there, because they have not been approved by the committee.  By not permitting the most influential reformist leaders to compete, the coalitions of supporters that had formed in many provinces are refusing to support the electoral campaigns, which now appear to have no meaning.  Moreover, even the few influential candidates who will be permitted to participate are questioning their course of action, since without electoral campaigns their chances of receiving votes are minimal". 

The spokesman for some of the reformist coalitions, Abdollah Nasseri, reports that a climate of pessimism reigns among the rejected candidates and their supporters after the decision from the executive committee. 

But there is no lack of disagreement even within the ultra-conservative wing, where Ali Larijani, a former member of Iran's national security council - who left his post because of "ideological" differences with president Ahmadinejad - has formed his own list with the leading figures of the conservative fringe, like the mayor of Tehran, and will stand as a candidate in the upcoming elections.

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