144 to stand in Iran clerical body polls

TEHRAN, Nov 14 (Reuters) Iran's constitutional watchdog today said 144 people had passed a test to stand in an election next month to a powerful clerical body that supervises Iran's supreme leader.

The December 15 popular vote for the Assembly of Experts, clerical body, and local council elections the same day are the first national polls to be held in Iran since conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president last year.

The Assembly of Experts is made up of 86 Shi'ite Muslim theologians who have the power to appoint, supervise and dismiss the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the Islamic Republic's system of clerical rule.

''Totally, 144 people were qualified by the council, one of those is a non-cleric,'' the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Abbasali Kadkhodai, spokesman for the Guardian Council constitutional watchdog as saying.

The 12-man Guardian Council has the power to vet candidates for elections in Iran's complex power structure. It did not name any of the successful candidates.

Kadkhodai said 100 people withdrew their candidacy and 240 people were disqualified from the election. No women passed the test to stand in the election.

While the Assembly of Experts was responsible for appointing Khamenei in 1989, it is not known to have intervened in any major political decisions since then.

Iran's reform-minded opposition fear sympathisers with the policies of Ahmadinejad, who regularly rails against the West and vows a return to Islamic revolutionary values, may try to pack the assembly and make it more active in day-to-day affairs.

Conservatives already control the army, Guardian Council, parliament and city councils and enjoy the backing of Khamenei.

Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, a senior cleric seen as Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor was among those who applied to stand in the election. Moderate former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani also signed up to run in the election.

For the first time, hopefuls had to pass a test on theology and science to stand as candidates for the Assembly of Experts which will have a 10-year term.

The Guardian Council said all but three of the present conservative-dominated body would be able to stand again. The council was reviewing the test results of those three.

REUTERS MS BS1906