Some 120 Iranian MPs resigned on Sunday in protest at the mass barring of candidates from February 20 elections, plunging the Islamic republic into political chaos in the midst of its 25th anniversary celebrations.
In a damning statement read out during a stormy Majlis session and relayed live across the country on national radio, the deputies accused powerful conservatives of seeking to impose a Taleban-style religious dictatorship.
"We cannot continue to be present in a parliament that is not capable of defending the rights of the people and which is unable to prevent elections in which the people cannot choose their representatives," they said.
President Mohammad Khatami's brother Mohammad-Reza, head of the main reformist party, warned of a conservative "coup d'etat" supported by the military.
After being swamped with resignations, pro-reform Majlis speaker Mehdi Karubi admitted the three-week-old crisis had hit a dead-end and appealed for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step in.
Khamenei has the final say on all matters of state, and directly or indirectly appoints all 12 members of the Guardians Council, the political vetting body behind the disqualifications of would-be reformist MPs.
The deputies' statement, read out by prominent MPs Mohsen Mirdamadi and Rajab-Ali Mazroui, accused conservatives of "installing an Islam comparable to that of the Taleban".
"We will not participate in this election," the deputies wrote in their statement.
Reformist leader Behzad Nabavi told the state news agency IRNA that 120 deputies from the 290-seat Majlis had submitted signed copies of the letter. Throughout the day different figures ranging from 116 to 123 were given in, Iranian news reports.
In a symbolic move, the resignations coincided with the hour and day of the return from exile 25 years ago of Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Iran is currently in the midst of a string of official celebrations aimed at trumpeting the success of the 1979 revolution.
Iran's supreme leader has already intervened in the bitter crisis, by telling the Guardians Council - a body fiercely opposed to the reformists' bid to shake up the way Iran is run - to be less stringent after it initially barred 3,605 candidates.
It reduced that number by 1,160 in a drawn-out appeals process, but has not reinstated some 80 sitting MPs or any prominent pro-reform figures and allies of embattled President Khatami.
Khatami's government has already refused to organise the elections, and the resignations of 40 percent of MPs will deny the Majlis its required two-thirds quorum for future sessions - effectively paralysing pending legislation such as the national budget.
But according to the complex political procedure, the parliament must first examine the resignations and then vote on them - and Karubi said this would take place in a week.
The president was putting a brave face on the crisis, the day after he fell ill with a crippling bout of serious back pain and was ordered by doctors to stay in his bed for several days. One top government source blamed the president's condition on "stress and pressure on his nerves".
On Sunday he appeared for the inauguration of Tehran's new airport. An AFP photographer there, however, said Khatami - under increasing criticism for being too weak in pushing through his brand of "Islamic Glasnost" - did appear to be in pain.
The main reformist grouping loyal to Khatami said it would also boycott the elections if they went ahead. The Guardians Council has so far refused to agree to interior ministry demands for a postponement.
Mohammad Reza Khatami, head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, warned conservatives not to force the holding of the vote.
"If the conservatives want to organise an election with the backing of the military, this would not be an election. This would be a coup d'etat," he told reporters.
In addition, the interior minister said the political rebellion had spread to the regional level as the country's 28 provincial governors had insisted on resigning.
Iran's main pro-democracy student group, the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU), has already called for a nation-wide boycott of the vote and a referendum on Iran's political future.
Another student group said it had sought permission to hold a protest rally on Wednesday, but has yet to receive the green light from city authorities.
It is seen as highly unlikely the protest will be given authorisation, as authorities are keen to keep students - who sparked a nation-wide security alert last summer when they led anti-regime protests - out of the dispute.
As conservatives were left mulling their next move, prominent Iranian conservative newspaper editor Hossein Shariatmadari wrote in his evening Kayhan newspaper that the mass resignations were a "gift to the Iranian people."
And in an ominous warning, he said "those executive officials who want to resign close to the time of the election should be dealt with like the enemies of God".
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