• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Iran Reverses Ban On 1,500 Election Candidates

February 06, 2016

Iran's constitutional watchdog, the hard-line Guardians Council, has reversed a ban on 1,500 candidates who had registered to run in the February 26 parliamentary elections.

Iranian state media said the new list of approved candidates -- now numbering over 6,200 -- had been sent to the Interior Ministry.

Last month, the Guardians Council, a vetting body made up of clerics and jurists, disqualified thousands of moderate and reformist parliamentary candidates and four-fifths of the candidates for the body that will choose Iran's next supreme leader.

That decision sparked a growing dispute between Iran's hard-liner and reformist factions.

It is unclear how many of the newly approved candidates are considered to be reformists.

The upcoming vote is seen as a showdown between hard-liners and moderates, who hope for a boost in the wake of the newly implemented nuclear deal with world powers and the lifting of international sanctions.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-reverses- ban-on-election-candidates/27535982.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.