Khuzestan governor lashes out at candidate disqualifications

The Khuzestan governor says the “unnecessary and illogical disqualification” of candidates is no different from cheating through tampering with ballot boxes. IRNA reports that Abdolhossein Moghtadayi said on Saturday September 16, at a meeting at Khuzestan elections headquarters, that no one has the right to manipulate the elections. “Neither executive committees nor supervisory ones have the right to determine who will go to Parliament,” Moghtadayi said. Hopeful candidates for the parliamentary elections must first be approved by committees formed by the executive branch to determine their eligibility; then they also need to be approved by the Guardian Council, which is charged with monitoring the elections. The executive committees appointed by provincial governors only rejected the eligibility of 810 the 12,000 individuals that have registered to run in the elections. Now reports indicate that the Guardian Council, which is headed by the ultra-conservative hardliner Ahmad Jannati, has rejected 60 percent of the candidates and that reformists are being widely excluded from the elections. Ali Shakourirad, a top reformist figure, has called on the president to intervene in the process and challenge the eligibility process.