A number of candidates disqualified from the parliamentary elections staged a protest in front of the Guardian Council, the government body responsible for the disqualifications.
Khabaronline reports that the protesters were comprised of 70 veterans of the Iran-Iraq War.
Alireza Matani, the head of the Law and Defense of Veterans Party, was quoted as saying that many of their members were disqualified on the basis of paragraph one of Article 28 which describes “a lack of commitment to Islam and the constitution”.
“If they had disqualified us for any other reason, we would not have staged a protest,” Matani said.
He added: “How can veterans who fought for Islam for so many years and risked their lives for this cause, how can they now be deemed wanting in commitment to Islam?”
Twelve thousand people registered to run in the parliamentary elections scheduled for February 26. The Guardian Council disqualified most of the applicants for “lack of commitment to Islam and the constitution”. Most of the disqualified applicant are reformists.
The council has been accused of acting in favour of conservative forces and blocking reformist and independent candidates from running in the elections
