TEHRAN -- Iran's President Mohammad Khatami threatened "harsh" consequences yesterday unless the disqualification of reformist legislators from February's elections was reversed. As he spoke, dozens of the legislators staged a sit-in to protest the hardliners' attempt to skewer the electoral choice. "We are holding a sit-in inside the Parliament building to protest the illegal decision of the Guardian Council to disqualify prominent reformers who have resisted hardline dictatorship," Reza Yousefian, one of those disqualified, said.
The council, which comprises conservatives picked by Iran's supreme leader, has disqualified more than 80 legislators, all reformists, from seeking another term in next month's parliamentary elections, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Members of Parliament say that about 900 of the 1,700 people who wanted to contest seats in Tehran have been disqualified.
The disqualified legislators include Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of Iran's president, and Behzad Nabavi -- both deputy speakers of Parliament. Mohammad Reza Khatami leads the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the largest reformist party.
The Guardian Council also disqualified Fatemeh Haqiqatjou and Elaheh Koulaee, two female legislators who have fought for women's rights.
President Mohammad Khatami vowed yesterday to challenge the disqualifications, saying there would be a "harsh reaction" if legal channels failed to overturn the council's decision.
"It's meaningless that qualification of prominent figures who have worked for the nation for years is not approved," the president said after a cabinet meeting. "I'm against such disqualifications. There are legal ways to fight."
Mohsen Mirdamadi, the head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee and one of those disqualified, said the Guardian Council's decision was a "bloodless coup," the official IRNA news agency reported.
"Through these massive disqualifications, they (hardliners) want only their own thinking to control the next Parliament. This will be no more an election, but an appointment of the next Parliament by hardliners," IRNA quoted Mirdamadi as saying.
Mirdamadi said he, the younger Khatami and Nabavi were disqualified because the Guardian Council decided "we are not loyal to the absolute rule of supreme leader."
Reformist leaders have threatened a boycott of the election if their candidates are disqualified.
