BRIEF ON IRAN No. 326 Thursday, January 11, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Iran's Opposition Called for Boycott of Majlis Elections, Agence France Presse, January 10 The armed opposition against the Tehran regime, united in the National Council of Resistance of Iran, called Wednesday for the boycott of Majlis elections next March.... Rajavi stressed: "The Iranian people have already demonstrated their support, inside Iran and abroad, for the Resistance and Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect in exile of the NCR. According to Rajavi, NCR is "the democratic alternative against the dictator, terrorist regime of Mullahs." He also challenged the Iranian officials to "hold a free parliamentary elections under supervision of the United Nations" if they can. Massoud Rajavi Calls for Boycott of Mullahs' Majlis Elections, from a statement by NCR, January 10 In a message on the upcoming elections of the mullahs' Majlis in March, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, expressed his conviction that this time, too, the election farce will meet the Iranian nation's full- fledged boycott. Any form of assistance to this anti-patriotic theatrics and taking part in the electoral race is against the best interests of the Iranian people, directly serving to prolong the reign of suppression, torture and executions, he asserted. The NCR president noted: Majlis elections are being held this year in circumstances which Rafsanjani has nothing to offer but total political and economic bankruptcy, and international isolation and rejection. The regime's leader, Khamenei, also faces increasing opposition in the seminaries and from the clergy not in the government. Recently, mullah Azari Qomi, a former proponent, vehemently criticized the regime's administration of the country and declared that he refuses to accept Khamenei's religious authority. In such circumstances, the elections are used only for settling accounts among the government factions.... ...Today, after 16 years of the mullahs' rule, no doubt remains as to the need for the overthrow of this regime and transfer of sovereignty to the people of Iran through the formation of a National Constituent and Legislative Assembly.... Iran Bans Opposition News Conference on Vote, Reuters, January 10 TEHRAN - Iranian security officials on Wednesday stopped an opposition group from holding a news conference to call for free elections in Iran, a spokesman for the group said.... The group said the police action contradicted repeated statements by officials, including President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, that the elections would be free.... Several political groupings, ranging from secular liberals to sidelined radical Islamist have in the past few months criticized a new election law giving a conservative clerical body full power in screening candidates.... Senior Dissident Iran Cleric Has Heart Operation, Reuters, January 10 TEHRAN - Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a senior Moslem cleric critical of the Iranian leadership, was in good condition after a heart operation at a Tehran hospital on Wednesday, a hospital spokesman said.... Montazeri has been banished from official Iranian politics since late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini dismissed him as his designated heir before he died in 1989.... Imprisoned for years under the rule of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Montazeri was a staunch supporter of Khomeini in the 1979 Islamic revolution. But he gradually turned into a vocal critic of government policies such as its treatment of political prisoners.