Constitutional crisis delays Khatami's swearing-in

From Shirzad Bozorgmehr

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- The final swearing-in of Mohammad Khatami, Iran's resoundingly re-elected president, was put on hold Saturday because of a constitutional crisis that pitted conservative leaders against the country's reform-minded parliament.

In a letter sent to the speaker of Iran's parliament late Saturday, the country's supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the ceremony should be postponed until ambiguities in the constitution -- specifically, the ground rules under which a person can be authorized as president -- can be ironed out.

Khamenei confirmed Khatami, who won a landslide victory in the June 8 election, as president for a second four-year term on Thursday. But that was only half of a two-part confirmation process, which also requires a civil confirmation -- the process that hit a snag Saturday.

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According to Iran's constitution, members of the Guardian Council and other officials, including members of parliament and the head of the judiciary, must attend the civil confirmation.

The Guardian Council consists of 12 members, six of whom are high clerics appointed by supreme leaders and another six who are lawyers nominated by the head of the judiciary branch. The council has a staggered election system so that not all of the seats come up for election at the same time.

Three seats on the Guardian Council were up for election Saturday, and the parliament voted Saturday afternoon on a list of candidates submitted by the judiciary.

But the parliament approved only one name, leaving the Guardian Council with 10 members -- not the full 12.

That threw the presidential confirmation process into crisis, since the constitution does not specify how many members of the council must be at the presidential swearing-in ceremony -- only that the council itself must be present.

The parliament had hoped 10 council members would suffice, but Khamenei disagreed.

"Due to the fact that the parliament could not come up with a legal vote in the election of the lawyers for the council of guardians," Khamenei wrote, "and due to the ambiguity of this issue in the constitution, the ceremonies for the swearing-in of the president should be postponed until proper legal grounds have been prepared for it, so that this very important ceremony and issue is not shrouded by legal ambiguities."

The vote in parliament highlighted a political rivalry between the reformist-dominated parliament and the conservative-dominated judiciary, which presented the list of candidates. Parliament members said all six names on the list were too young, too inexperienced and too right-wing.