PHOTO: Supreme Leader visits mausoleum of the late Ayatollah Khomeini on Saturday
The grandson of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, has challenged his disqualification from February’s elections for Iran’s Assembly of Experts.
Seyed Hassan Khomeini was among the 80% of 800 candidates rejected by the Guardian Council, the 12-man group appointed by the Supreme Leader and the judiciary.
The Council also barred 60% of the 12,000 applicants for the 290 seats in Parliament, including 99% of all reformist hopefuls.
The bans came as hardliners and some conservatives feared success for a centrist bloc around President Hassan Rouhani and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, possibly in an alliance with reformists.
Khomeini said during a Friday speech that he will file a formal complaint over his disqualification. However, he said that it is “unlikely” that the Guardian Council will reverse its decision, given its claim that it could not establish his religious credentials despite “the testimonies of Grand Ayatollahs, my lectures, and my writings”.
Khomeini said he was “a consolidator for the people, ideals, and path of Imam Khomeini”. He was careful to uphold the Islamic system despite the Council’s bans:
No behavior should create the perception that [electoral] competition in the Islamic Republic is facing difficulty, or that the democratic institutions of this political order, including the Assembly of Expert…are [being elected] with the stain of closed competition.
The Guardian Council is review all appeals and will confirm a final list of approved candidates by February 9.
Supporters of the Council showed no signed of retreating on Friday. The hardline prayer leader in Mashhad, Ayatollah Alamalhoda, said that the Assembly of Experts “is not the field for politics or competition“.
(hat tip to Iran Tracker for translations)
