Iran's legislative watchdog has rejected the government's proposed date of May 13 next year for presidential elections as too early, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday. The Guardian Council said preparations for the vote could not start more than three months before President Mohammad Khatami's term expires on August 1.
Holding the vote on the date the Interior Ministry had proposed would mean starting preparations for the ballot well before that deadline.
The election will spell the end of a largely unsuccessful eight-year experiment at reforming the Islamic state by Khatami, who cannot stand for what would be a third successive term.
Khatami, elected by a landslide in 1997 and again in 2001, has seen his popularity plummet as Iranians grew frustrated with his apparent inability to overcome resistance to change among Iran's clerical establishment.
The hard-line Guardian Council barred thousands of pro-reform Khatami allies from running for parliament earlier this year and political analysts expect it to exclude any outspoken reformists from the presidential race.
Several political parties are backing a comeback for former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. But the powerful cleric, who political analysts say has a foot in both reformist and hard-line camps, has yet to declare his intention to run.
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