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Iran's
first reformist-dominated parliament in two decades opens |
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May 28, 2000 TEHRAN, MAY 27 (AP) - Iran's new parliament opened Saturday, dominated for the first time by reformists who support President Mohammad Khatami's programs to loosen the strict Islamic rules kept in place by hard-line clergy who still wield enormous power. The inauguration ceremony, broadcast live on state-run television and radio, began with the playing of the national anthem and the reading of verses from Islam's holy book, the Koran. The session was attended by senior leaders, military commanders, foreign diplomats and journalists who sat in the visitors' gallery listening through headphones to a translation of the proceeding. In a statement read by an assistant, Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Majlis, or parliament, should "disappoint the enemy" by defending the country's Islamic establishment. Reformists won about three-fourths of the 290 seats in the Majlis. Elections are contested on a nonpartisan basis, and legislators' party affiliations are known only informally.
This is the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution brought the clergy to power that the legislature has slipped out of the control of hard-liners who want no dilution of the Islamic-guided laws, many of them unpopular due to their restrictions on personal freedoms. Despite the reformists' election victory, the 3-year-old power struggle between Khatami's allies and the hard-liners is far from over. Since it became apparent that reformists had swept the Feb. 18 elections, there has been a strong backlash by the hard-liners.
The Guardian Council, an election supervisory body controlled by conservatives, delayed endorsing the results for three months, alleging fraud. It formally accepted the reformists' victory last week after pressure from Khamenei, the final authority in Iran. Khamenei is known to back the hard-liners but has sometimes kept them in check, apparently to prevent an outright confrontation. The hard-liners also control the judiciary and the security forces. Last month, they used the judiciary to shut down 18 reformist newspapers and jail several leaders. Soon after the elections, a prominent Khatami ally, Saeed Hajjarian, was shot and seriously wounded. He was released from hospital earlier this month. Besides supervising the elections, the Guardian Council also is the final approver of all new legislation - which could be a stumbling block for the reformist lawmakers. Still, the convening of parliament on time is an indication that the reformists are not without influence. In the absence of any interference, they will be able to make themselves heard to the people as all parliamentary proceedings are required to be broadcast live by state media. Even
before the convening of parliament, the reformists scored a minor
victory when former President Hashemi Rafsanjani resigned from parliament
Thursday following his poor showing in the elections - he finished among the last in a slate of 30 candidates elected from Tehran. Rafsanjani, the most prominent hard-liner to win a parliament seat, was believed to be the hard-liners' choice for the powerful position of house speaker. |