Opposition Group Slams Choice for Presidential Election, Agence France Presse, May 8 

PARIS - The rejection of the overwhelming majority of candidates for May's presidential elections in Iran by the authorities means the contest will be unfair, an opposition group charged Thursday.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCR), the umbrella group for the Iranian opposition, said the choice of just four candidates out of the 238 who applied "confirms that the regime does not even have the capacity to hold elections."…

All the candidates are in, or have held senior positions in the Islamic republic's administration in recent years.

Massoud Rajavi, president of the opposition group which is based in Paris, said the decision "discredited those hoping for change within the illegitimate ruling dictatorship, reaffirming that any such expectation was but a mirage."

Rajavi said: "The only option is to overthrow the mullahs by the National Liberation Army and to replace them with the NCR."

 

Mullahs' Rejection of Candidates Doubled Since 1993, Reuter, May 8 

A senior Iranian cleric on Thursday defended an Islamic screening body's decision to allow only four of more than 200 would-be candidates to run in Iran's presidential election on May 23.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the Guardian Council, said the body ruled on political and legal grounds to disqualify all but four of 238 who signed up….

The council, a body of clerics and lawyers, on Wednesday named the four as Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, who is parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, a former intelligence minister, Mohammad Khatami, a former minister of culture and Islamic guidance, and Reza Zavarei, deputy head of judiciary.

All four are Shi'ite Moslems and only Zavarei is not a clergyman.

The council screened the contenders for their allegiance to Iran's Islamic system of government and "absolute obedience" to the Iranian supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

In the last presidential polls in 1993, four out of 128 who signed up were approved by the powerful council.

 

Iran's Clergy at Each Other's Throat Ahead of Presidential Election, Agence France Presse Feature, May 8 

TEHRAN - Iran's Shiite Moslem clergy are tearing each other apart nearly two weeks ahead of the presidential election, which has set social conservatives against a coalition of Islamic moderates and leftwing radicals.

As the may 23 balloting draws near, senior religious dignitaries behind the regime appear sharply divided on which course to take or to simply not get involved in the factional fighting in their country.

The moderate-radical coalition, which supports former culture minister Mohammad Khatami, wants the clergy not to take sides and limit itself to calling on people to vote.

The conservatives, on the other hand, believe the clergy should intervene to ensure the top executive post does not fall in the wrong hands after President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani steps down….

The dispute between the leading political factions is expected to turn more bitter with the approach of the mourning month of Moharram, which is the anniversary of the death of a seventh Shiite leader, Imam Hossein….

 

Satellite Dishes: Still a Source of Worry for Mullahs, State-controlled daily Jomhuri Islami, May 1 

26 satellite dishes were discovered and confiscated in Islamshahr [northwest Tehran] and Tehran's 18^th district by the effort of the executive headquarter of Enjoining the Good and Forbidding the Bad in Islamshahr.

Ehsan Badr-khani, the commander of headquarters… emphasized that the violators and users of satellite dishes will be firmly confronted….

 

Tehran's Stock Market Declines, Radio France Internationale, May 6

Tehran's Stock, which has been challenged by evident stagnancy since few months ago, last week faced an unprecedented decline.

According to financial circuits in Tehran, during April 27 through May 1, the trade in Tehran's Stock Market declined 63% in volume and 50% in value comparing to its previous week.

Economists in Tehran, describing the reasons, emphasize that: First, the government austerity policies, which have taken place since the second half of the year before, have led to the lack of cashflow and have caused crises for many production units … The second element, is the government's policy with regard to non-petroleum export, which forces the exporters to exchange their foreign income through official rate to the country's banking network…

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