Fearing a boycott after all reformist candidates were disqualified from Iran’s upcoming elections, the country’s supreme leader ordered the applications of some candidates be reviewed today, state-run television reported.

The Guardian Council, the hard-line constitutional watchdog that vets the election candidates, rejected all the reformists who”d registered to run in next month”s presidential elections. Only six out of 1014 hopeful candidates were approved, and 5 were not from the reformist camp. «It”s appropriate that all individuals in the country be given the choice from various political tendencies,» said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his decree addressed to Guardian Council chief Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati. «Therefore, it seems that (the) qualification of Mr. Moin and Mr. Mehralizadeh be reconsidered,» the television quoted Khamenei”s decree as saying, referring to the two most prominent reformists disqualified, Mostafa Moin and Vice President Mohsen Mehralizadeh.

Hours earlier, Moin said he would not vote in the elections and called his disqualification «illegal, unfair and illogical.» In response to the Guardian Council”s step, Iran”s main reformist party said yesterday it would boycott the presidential election.

Apart from Ali Rafsanjani, 70, who was president from 1989 to 1997 and favors better ties with the West and less state involvement in the economy, the Guardian Council approved just one moderate reformist, and that is the former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi.

The remaining four candidates are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Ali Larijani, Mohsen Rezaie and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, all former members of the conservative Revolutionary Guards loyal to supreme Leader Khamenei.

A source close to the office of the Supreme Leader told &#34Asharq- Al-Awsat&#34

that the Guardian Council was pushed to make some changes in its list of candidates after the interference of the security advisor of the Supreme Leader. He adds that the Guardian Council cleared only four candidates and those are Rafsanjani, Ali Larijani, Karroubi and Rezaie. But after the interference of the Supreme Leader”s office, according to the source, the Guardian Council add to its final list Ahmadinejad and Baqer Qalibaf, both of them are close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

One source told &#34Asharq Al-Awsat&#34 that the office of the Iranian president Mohammad Khatami is about to publish an official statement to express his concerns.