Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi said
on Tuesday that the parliament is working with the Guardian Council to
make a breakthrough in ratifying the twin bills President Mohammad
Khatami had introduced last year, IRNA reported from Tehran.
Upon delivery of the two bills, the president told the parliament
that the legislation will help him fulfill the promises he gave to the
people in his election campaign and bring about a democratic society.
One of the bills seeks to remove the extra authority the fifth
parliament gave to the Guardians Council to examine the qualification
of candidates running for parliamentary election.
Constitutionally, the Interior Ministry is in charge of holding
the election and examining the eligibility of the applicants for
the parliamentary elections.
The Guardian Council has so far turned down the bid to relinquish
the extra authority, but, proponents of the bill say that the Guardian
Council should be satisfied with its constitutional power of
supervising elections.
The second bill empowers the president to stop enforcement of
verdicts issued by courts of justice when the president sees them
against the constitutional rights of people.
The president would forward his reservation about a certain
verdict to the Supreme Court, according to a legislation passed last
week.
The Guardian Council rejected the legislation too for interfering
in the Judiciary's affairs.
But, the president documented on several cases of verdicts in
which the constitutional rights of people have not been respected.
President Khatami has so far served several notices to the
Judiciary about certain cases that he deemed to be in violation of
the constitutional rights. Some of the notices were heeded, some not.
The president believes that the constitution has given the chief
executive the right to protect the constitution and the constitutional
rights of people and the bill aims to provide an executive law to
enforce the constitutional right.
Freedom of expression, the major part of President Mohammad
Khatami's election platform has become a stumbling block because of
the hefty sentences the courts of justice have issued against some
individuals while the defendants say that they did not exceed the
boundaries of the law and only exercised their constitutional rights.
Karroubi said that the Guardian Council has agreed with the
parliament to form two working groups to help resolve the disputes.
... Payvand News - 4/29/03 ... --
