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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Guardian Council Warning on Upcoming Parliamentary Elections

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the chairman of Iran’s Guardian Council, the governmental body charged with approving the final list of candidates presented to the public for the upcoming parliamentary elections, warned those spending “unconventional” amounts of money in their campaigns that they would be disqualified to run for Majlis.

The supporters of President Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, whom are routinely labeled “deviationists” by the ruling conservatives, are believed to be waging organized and well-financed campaigns. Jannati’s comments, delivered at Friday Prayer sermon, was a clear warning that the council might be planning to disqualify the group’s candidates under different pretexts, including their campaign budgets.

“Those candidates who spend unconventional sums of money for the election campaigns might have a problem in securing the approval of the Guardian Council,” Ayatollah Jannati said [IRNA, 28 October].

Jannati added that the council would be closely monitoring the election campaigns all across the country to identify the big spenders. Ayatollah Jannati was appointed to his post by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held on 2 March 2012.

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