Iran's Guardian Council on Tuesday approved two reformist candidates to run in next month's presidential election, state-run television reported.
The move came a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the constitutional watchdog that vets the candidates to review some of the reformist applicants. The council on Sunday had rejected all the reformists who'd registered to run in next month's presidential elections.
Mostafa Moin and Vice President Mohsen Mehralizadeh, the two most prominent reformists disqualified by the council, were approved and will be able to run in the June 17 elections, television reported Tuesday.
The council on Sunday approved only six of the more than 1,000 hopeful candidates, and those six were not from the reformist camp.
"It's appropriate that all individuals in the country be given the choice from various political tendencies," Khamenei said in his decree.
According to a Tuesday IRNA report, the Tehran University dormitory had witnessed unrest for several hours, following the disqualification of Mostafa Moin - the reformers' candidate for the 9th presidential election - by the Guardians Council.
Some 300 students had marched from the dormitory compound, that was halted with the intervention of police and were then returned to the university compound. During the student gathering, one of the main roads to the compound was blocked by the police and the law enforcement forces took control of the traffic inside and outside the dormitory.
An informed source in the Interior Ministry told the news agency that the Interior Minister had asked police forces not to confront students. The latest news from the dormitory compound is that the students have returned to their rooms and that the conditions at the university compound and its surrounding areas have returned to normal, the official agency said.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
