Iran's bizarre ritual

On Tuesday, one of most bizarre rituals of Iran’s elections system reaches its denouement.  The Council of Guardians, whose duties include vetting candidates, will issue its final list of ‘approved’ candidates for the March 14 Majlis elections -- just ten days before the polls.

Back in January the Interior Ministry -- which is beholden to the embattled hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad -- banned more than 2,000 of the 7,200 candidates who had put themselves forward.  The Council then banned a few more.  The main reformist groupings complained bitterly that the candidate lists had been eviscerated, with all their top figures (including former ministers and governors) banned.  Indeed, complaints were heard across the spectrum.  This chorus concerned Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who feared that excessive disqualifications could further stoke political apathy, produce historically low turnout, and thereby damage the credibility of elections.  Therefore, the Council has gradually rowed back, apparently reinstating approximately 1,000 candidates that it initially banned.

However, in Iran things are rarely what they seem.  The main reformist figureheads are still off the electoral list.  The reformists say they can only compete in around half the 290 seats.  And the Council’s most recent statement indicated that it has allowed 4,500 to stand and disqualified 2,200 -- more or less the same number ruled out in its initial vetting.