Iranian reformist minister seeks poll delay

The minister in charge of Iran's elections has called for next month's poll to be postponed after thousands of candidates were…

The minister in charge of Iran's elections has called for next month's poll to be postponed after thousands of candidates were barred by a powerful religious committee.

Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari wrote to Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the powerful 12-man Guardian Council, asking for the February 20th poll to be delayed to allow for a "proper election".

Constitutionally the Guardian Council must agree to any change of election date.

The ISNA students' news agency said the Guardian Council had already rejected the proposal but the body itself declined to comment.

READ MORE

The fairness of the elections was cast into doubt when the Guardian Council, composed of six clerics and six Islamic lawyers, banned almost half of the 8,200 candidates from running.

Those disqualified were mainly allies of reformist President Mohammad Khatami and included 80 of the 290 members outgoing parliamentarians. Reformist have been holding a protest sit-in at parliament for almost three weeks.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters, earlier intervened by calling on the Guardian Council to review the disqualifications, but reformists complain that reversals have been slow to come.

Influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called for a quick resolution to stop enemies such as the United States making political capital from the dispute.