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Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 16:25 GMT

Khomeini grandson returns to poll

Iranian women study ballot sheets in 2004 parliament election The grandson of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini has been reinstated as a candidate in the country's parliamentary elections.

Ruhollah Khomeini's grandson Ali Eshraghi, 39, said last week he had been disqualified after officials questioned his neighbours about him.

Candidates are vetted to check loyalty to Iran's Islamic revolutionary system. The main vetting body said it had reinstated 280 out of more than 2,200 mainly reformist banned candidates.

Altogether 7,168 candidates have been registered to stand.

Iranian media published the names of the candidates, following the Guardians Council's decision on Tuesday.

But correspondents say many prominent reformists remain disqualified, and officials have hinted that more candidates could be excluded.

The vetting process will continue for several weeks and the final list of approved candidates will be announced on 5 March, with the vote held on 14 March.

Reformists were defeated in 2004 after hundreds of such disqualifications.

The council, a hardline unelected body, has the final say over who can stand.

Ayatollah Khomeini, who died in 1989, became Iran's first Supreme Leader after the 1979 Islamic revolution and instituted the current clerically-led system.




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