Lawmakers quit en masse

last updated 8 January 2015

Tehran

More than one-third of Iran’s parliament resigned this week to protest the ruling clerics’ attempt to control the upcoming election. Last month the Guardian Council, a group of 12 mullahs that has the final word on all laws and regulations, barred most pro-reform candidates, including 83 incumbents, from running for parliament. Outraged reformist lawmakers called for the election, scheduled for Feb. 20, to be postponed. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and one of the banned candidates, said that elections under the current circumstances would amount to “a full-fledged coup.”