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	CIAO Focus, February 2004: Iran's Elections
	Map of Iran The government of Iran is in crisis over the upcoming February 20 parliamentary elections. Last month, Iran's Guardian Council disqualified more than 3,600 of the 8,200 people who filed to run in the polls, leading reformists to accuse the Council of attempting to sway the polls in the favor of conservatives. The Guardian Council delivered its final list of disqualifications Friday. Under political pressure the Council reinstated 1,160 of the candidates it had disqualified, though over 2,400 still remain barred from the polls. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of Iran's president and leader of the popular pro-reform Islamic Iran Participation Front, has stated unequivocally that his party will boycott the elections. This month CIAO focuses on the domestic situation in Iran. From CIAO's database: Reading the Popular Mood in Iran Understanding Iran: Getting Past Stereotypes and Mythology (PDF) Iran: Demonstrations, Despair, and Danger Can Iran and the United States Bridge the Gulf? (PDF) What are Iran's Domestic Priorities Cyberdissent: The Internet in Revolutionary Iran Outside Links*: Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons http://www.opcw.nl/ Official site of President Khatami http://www.president.ir/ Iran Information from the World Bank http://www.worldbank.org/ir The Story of the Iranian Revolution, BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/revolution/ Iranian Cultural Information Center http://www.persia.org Electronic Briefing Book on the 1953 Coup http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB28/ * Outside links are not maintained. For broken outside links, CIAO recommends the Way Back Machine [http://www.archive.org/].