Mass parliamentary resignation in Iran deepens election crisis

TEHRAN, Iran -- More than one-third of Iran's lawmakers resigned in protest Sunday over disputed elections and the parliamentary speaker charged ruling clerics with trampling on the rights of his countrymen.

Speaker Mahdi Karroubi appealed to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to help resolve the crisis caused by disqualification of thousands of liberal candidates from the Feb. 20 vote.

Some 124 lawmakers in the 290-seat Majlis, or parliament, resigned Sunday in a dramatic gesture intended to force the clerical hierarchy to reinstate the disqualified candidates.

Determining a direction

The mass resignation "will determine Iran's direction: rule of absolute dictatorship or democracy," reformist lawmaker Mohammad Kianoush-Rad said.

Karroubi said he and reformist President Mohammad Khatami started new efforts to resolve the crisis, holding discussions with Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters.

But Khamenei left the capital Tehran for an undisclosed location, making it difficult to reach him, parliamentary officials said.

Karroubi, the parliamentary speaker, launched a rare verbal attack on the Guardian Council, the unelected body of hard-line clerics that disqualified more than 2,400 reformist candidates from the legislative elections.

"Are you loyal to Islam if you pray daily, but then trample on the rights of the people?" said Karroubi, himself a cleric.

One resigning legislator, Mohsen Mirdamadi, said that if hard-liners tried to hold the elections without government support, it would be "a full-fledged coup with the help of military forces."