The protesting students staged a rally in front of Tehran University to protest the disqualification of a number of candidates for Assembly of Experts elections scheduled for October 23.
Hadi Khamenei, brother of Ali Khamenei, the mullahs' Leader, addressed the rally and criticized the conduct of the pro-Khamenei Guardians Council for eliminating nearly 60% of the candidates.
Dissident students used the occasion to distribute anti-government leaflets and were chanting slogans against repression and calling for the release of political prisoners.
Contrary to the organizers' objective, the rally turned into a demonstration against the regime's leaders.
As the biggest internal face-off among rival factions after the presidential elections last May, the Assembly of Experts elections has brought the clerical regime's internal power struggle to new heights.
In another development, in an interview with the state television, Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Council for the Discernment of the State Exigencies and Deputy Speaker of the Assembly of Experts, expressed his fears over the public's disregard for this election sham.
He said: "The opponents of the state are using a lot of resources and their agents so that people would boycott the elections."
Previously, Iranian Resistance Leader Massoud Rajavi had expressed confidence that the Iranian people would boycott the Assembly of Experts elections. This assembly has usurped the people's right to representative government. Taking part in the elections as a candidate or as voter is to betray the Iranian people's right to sovereignty.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 6, 1998
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