a restriction that will make it almost impossible for challengers to make a case against incumbents.
Mohammad-Reza Mir-Shamsi of the staff of the Council of Guardians, which oversees the elections, said public campaigning such as putting up banners and posters or placing advertisements in the media more than eight days before the balloting is “an offense, and violators will be dealt with accordingly.”
It appeared that candidates might be able to go door-to-door earlier and make speeches, but Shamsi did not make that expressly clear. And it will be hard for challengers to make their existence known if they cannot advertise their campaign.
Meanwhile, former President Mohammad Khatami made clear that he and other reformists are not proposing that reformist voters stay home and boycott the balloting. “The reformists cannot and should not have candidates and lists for the elections,” he said. “Of course, that does not mean boycotting the voting.”
He did not address the 40-odd Majlis deputies who are reformists and many of whom want to run for re-election. He also did not address the question of whom a reformist voter should vote for if there is no reformist candidate on the ballot.
On the other side of the political spectrum, the anti-Ahmadi-nejad principleists are still unable to resolve their differences and appear likely to run two competing slates in the elections. At this juncture, it appears the major slates will be one pro-Ahmadi-nejad slate and two anti-Ahmadi-nejad slates with no reformist slate. That would appear to ensure the election of a larger number of Ahmadi-nejad supporters than otherwise.
Candidates’ registration opens December 24 and runs through December 31. Shamsi said the review of the applications would begin 10 days later. He did not say when the final list of approved candidates would be announced.
Complicating things considerably is the fact that no one yet knows how many seats will be up for election. The government proposed a few months ago that the number of seats be raised from 290 to 310. But the Majlis declined Sunday to take up the bill right away and left it in the regular legislative queue.
