Rafsanjani criticises disqualification of candidates from Iran elections

Dubai: Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Monday criticised the disqualification of candidates from national elections to be held later this month.
The Guardian Council, a vetting body made up of clerics and jurists, excluded thousands of parliamentary hopefuls and four-fifths of the candidates for the body that will choose Iran's next Supreme Leader.
Among those excluded was Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Iran's first Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
"They disqualified the grandson of Imam Khomeini, who is the most similar person to his grandfather," Rafsanjani said, according to ISNA news agency, at a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of Khomeini's return to Tehran from France during the 1979 revolution.
"Who decided you are qualified to judge the others? Who gave you the right to take all the guns, have all the Friday prayer platform and run state television?" he added.
Rafsanjani, 78, was Friday prayer leader in Tehran before he was dismissed from the position when he backed the opposition movement whose protests were crushed after the last, disputed election in 2009.
The Guardian Council disqualified him from the next presidential election.
Elections to the 290-seat parliament and 88-member Assembly of Experts are due to take place on February 26.