Hard-Liners Reinstate Some Barred Candidates

Hard-line authorities said they were reinstating 200 candidates who had been barred from running in next month’s legislative elections and would reconsider the cases of thousands more.

But the announcement did little to allay the anger of reformists, who accuse conservatives of disqualifying liberal candidates in order to take control of parliament in the vote. Pro-reform lawmakers vowed to continue their sit-ins in the lobby of parliament.

Supervisory bodies affiliated with the unelected hard-line Guardian Council triggered the political crisis when they disqualified more than a third of the 8,200 would-be candidates.