Iranian Elections Headquarters announced that Iran’s three main reformist organizations are banned from the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The Islamic Iran Participation Front, the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the Freedom Movement of Iran are banned from the coming elections, according to Solat Mortazavi, the head of parliamentary election headquarters, because they are deemed to have been dissolved.
Mortazavi said: “These groups are dissolved from the point of view of the Interior Ministry and have no permit for activity; therefore, they cannot participate in the coming elections for the Islamic Parliament and cannot present a list of candidates.”
Iran will hold parliamentary elections next March, and the government is making preparations with an eye to preventing the political outbursts that marred the last elections. In 2009, the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to widespread protests, followed by a government crackdown on protesters and all reformist groups.
The government has been targeting the three aforementioned reformist parties since the 2009 election, and finally the judiciary declared them banned from any public activity.
Many members of these parties have been arrested in the past three years and sentenced to harsh prison terms.
