IRAN: Iran's electoral crisis hit a dead end yesterday when reports emerged that a compromise deal hammered out this week had once again been rejected by hardline conservatives, writes Caitriona Palmer in Tehran
"The compromise has failed," Mr Mohammad Reza Khatami, leader of the largest reform party and brother of the President, told reporters.
The news dashed renewed optimism by the reformists that a solution to the disqualification of over 2,000 candidates from the February 20th parliamentary elections was at hand.
On Wednesday the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a fresh review by the Intelligence Ministry of over 600 disqualified candidates following talks with reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
But the all-powerful Guardian Council, an unelected body of conservative clergy and legal experts, undermined the Intelligence Ministry and approved only 51 of the 600 candidates.
The move by the Guardian Council once again cast doubt on the absolute authority held by the supreme leader and underlined the determination of the council to stop at nothing to keep moderate candidates off the electoral roll.
At an emotional and defiant gathering at the parliament building yesterday, reformist MPs called a halt to their 26-day sit-in. Following a reading from a Koranic verse that promised victory over hypocrisy, Mr Jailil Sazegarmezhad, an MP from Shiraz, told the assembled MPs: "The end of our sit-in is not the end of our efforts. We will adopt new ways to continue our struggle."
In a series of angry speeches, MPs denounced the Guardian Council's decision and levelled unusually harsh words against the supreme leader.
"I will tell the highest person of the country, just and free elections are different from puppet elections," said Mr Ansari-Rad, a cleric and MP. "The elections should be postponed and everyone requalified, otherwise it will be illegal".
The reformists repeated their vow to boycott the election and seemed resigned to continuing their campaign for democratic change outside the parliament.