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Iran Hardliners Bar Liberal Candidates
Well wouldja look at that. It's like redistricting but without all that messy legal mumbo jumbo.
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP)--Hardliners have thrown Iran's legislative elections into crisis by disqualifying hundreds of liberal candidates, including more than 80 sitting lawmakers who are allied with the reformist president.
President Mohammad Khatami pledged to fight the move, and reformist members of parliament staged a sit-in protest at the legislature. One lawmaker condemned the decision as a ``bloodless coup'' by Islamic conservatives.
Reformist lawmakers were protesting ``the illegal decision of the Guardian Council to disqualify prominent reformers who have resisted hard-line dictatorship,'' Reza Yousefian, one of those disqualified, told The Associated Press.
The council, which comprises conservatives picked by Iran's supreme leader, has disqualified more than 80 incumbent lawmakers, all reformists, from seeking another term in next month's parliamentary elections, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. |
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