Some 5000 candidates register in Iran for parliamentary election

Dec 30, 2011, 15:51 GMT

Tehran - More than 5,000 candidates have registered for the March 2 parliamentary election in Iran, the interior minister said on Friday.

Out of the 5,283 candidates, 1,006 have registered for the capital Tehran, Mohammad Najar was quoted by official IRNA news agency as saying.

The ministry recorded 390 female candidates, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's sister, Parvin Ahmadinejad.

A faction led by parliament speaker Ali Larijani, which has close ties with the conservative majority in the current parliament, is favourite. It faces challenge from Ahmadinejad's faction and reformists, who back former president Mohammad Khatami.

The pro-Ahmadinejad faction is branded by the conservatives as the 'deviant current' due to its alleged efforts to adopt a nationalistic rather than an Islamic approach.

The reformist wing is also branded a 'conspiracy current' by the conservatives because of to its involvement in the street protests that followed the disputed presidential election in 2009.

That election was overshadowed by fraud accusations, and reformists refused to acknowledge the re-election of Ahmadinejad. Several reformist leaders were arrested after the election, some of whom are still in jail.

Khatami wanted the reformists to run in the March election, but most of the reformist parties prefer to boycott in protest at the lack of freedom and house arrests imposed since February on opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi.

Observers predict a low turnout in the election because of the fraud allegations that marred the 2009 presidential vote and the lack of prominent candidates.

Under the constitution, the powerful Guardian Council has the authority to disqualify candidates considered disloyal to country's Islamic system.