Final Tally: One-Third of Candidates Barred
Iran’s Guardian Council has barred almost one-third of aspiring candidates from standing in this month’s parliamentary elections, final candidate figures show.
The official IRNA news agency said the council, an unelected body of hard-line clerics and Islamic jurists with sweeping powers, had approved 5,627 candidates out of a total of 8,144. Most of those barred were reformists, including dozens of legislators in the current parliament.
Reformists won a comfortable majority in 2000 but say they will now be unable to compete for about half of the parliament’s 290 seats.
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