Special to WorldTribune.com
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
State media reports from Iran say about 60 percent of the people who have applied to be candidates in Iran’s February parliamentary elections have been rejected — with most of those rejections involving reformists.
Siamak Rah-Peyk, a spokesman for Iran’s Central Elections Supervising Committee, said on January 18 that only 4,700 of 12,000 registered candidates — about 40 percent of the applicants — had been approved.
The election committee depends upon the ruling of Iran’s Guardians Council, a panel of conservative clerics and jurists, to determine which registered candidates are eligible.
Reformist parties are protesting against the rejections.
Reformist Hossein Marashi said 3,000 registered reformist candidates around the country had been rejected and only 30 had been approved to run for one of the 290 parliamentary seats.
He said that in Tehran, which sends 30 representatives to the parliament, only four reformist candidates had been approved.
Reformists candidates in Iran, 3 of every 5, rejected in bids to run for parliament added by World Tribune on
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