Hopefuls sign up for vote to Iranian clerical body

TEHRAN, Oct 5 (Reuters) Prospective candidates began signing up today to run in elections to a clerical body which has the power to appoint, supervise and dismiss Iran's most powerful figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

State radio said registration would last a week after which entrants would be screened for their political and Islamic qualifications by the clergy-based Guardian Council, which disqualified many reformist candidates in past votes.

Reformists, who back political and social change, fear gains by candidates sympathising with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hardline stance and who may seek a more active political role for the Assembly, political analysts say.

Despite the Assembly's powerful mandate, it is not known to have intervened in any major political decisions although it appointed Khamenei as supreme leader in 1989 after the death of Islamic revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The Assembly is dominated by conservative clerics who have tended to steer clear of day-to-day politics, the analysts say.

It is made up of 86 Shi'ite Muslim clergymen. Candidates will be elected for 10 years in the December 15 vote. Women are allowed to run, but none have had their candidacy accepted in the past.

Few political figures have publicly announced their candidacy, but an aide close to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said the ex-president would enter the race ''as a matter of duty to serve his country''.

REFORMISTS Rafsanjani, an adviser to Khamenei, heads the Expediency Council which arbitrates disputes between the elected and appointed arms of the clerical establishment. The wily politician lost last year's presidential race to Ahmadinejad.

Papers said people loyal to senior cleric Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, who many see as a mentor to Ahmadinejad, were planning to run. It is not yet clear if Mesbah-Yazdi will stand.

The cleric has strong ties to hardline bodies such as the volunteer Basij militia and the elite Revolutionary Guards.

The vote for the Assembly could prove a tough test for reformists seeking a political revival after they were trounced in elections to city councils, parliament and the presidency.

Leading reformist groups have so far been unsuccessful in creating a coalition and joint list to fight the election.

Analysts say many reformist candidates are likely to be barred and the best they can hope for is to keep the status quo in the Assembly and prevent Ahmadinejad sympathisers and Mesbah-Yazdi loyalists from making gains.

Ahmadinejad has appointed his senior adviser, Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh, as deputy interior minister for political affairs, in charge of organising elections -- a move analysts said tightened the grip on power by Ahmadinejad's supporters.

''The appointment shows that this election is very important for hardliners. They are determined not to lose any seats to reformists,'' said a political science teacher, who asked not to be named.

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