Iran reformists drop attempt to postpone election

Iran's reformists on Saturday gave up their attempt to postpone this month's parliamentary election but told the nation's Supreme Leader that a conservative watchdog had defied him by banning so many candidates.
The 12-man Guardian Council, composed of clerics and Islamic lawyers, has barred more than 2,000 candidates from the February 20 poll, mainly reformist allies of President Mohammad Khatami, including some 80 MPs from the 290-seat parliament.
The reformist-run Interior Ministry twice called for the election to be postponed until its fairness could be guaranteed but hard-liners shot down the suggestion.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters, insisted on Wednesday that elections not be delayed.
President Khatami and Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi have now accepted the election must he held on time but are still crying foul play to Khamenei.
"Despite the Guardian Council's behaviour that contravenes the Supreme Leader's advice, the elections...will be held on the appointed date," they said in a letter to Khamenei, carried on the official IRNA news agency.
The Guardian Council initially vetoed almost half of the 8,200 aspiring candidates but was instructed by Khamenei to review its decisions.
The hard-line body reversed the bans on something under 1,400 candidates originally blocked. Reformists say the 12-man council defied the Supreme Leader with that decision because he had hoped for far more revisions.
Analyst Saeed Laylaz said the reformist government had no choice but to align themselves with the Leader's demand for a February 20 poll.
"Even though they consider it illegal, they must hold the election to safeguard the national interest and obey the Supreme Leader," he said.
More than 120 liberal MPs have resigned over the bitter political row, ending a 26-day parliamentary sit-in on Thursday.
They accuse the Guardian Council of a bloodless coup d'etat to wrest parliament away from reformists who won a huge majority in 2000. Iran's largest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, has said it will boycott the vote.
But the squabble has excited little sympathy from the public, frustrated by the sluggish pace of the reformists' social and economic change.