Top Iranian reformist blasts 'coup d'etat' by hardliners

"I consider this rejection of candidates to be an illegal coup d'etat and an act of regime change by non-military means," said Mirdamadi, head of the parliament's foreign policy and national security commission.

"If this decision is upheld, there will not be elections but designations," he told reporters outside the parliament, or Majlis.

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Mirdamadi was one of around 80 incumbent reformist MPs who have been barred from standing in the February 20 elections by the Guardians' Council, an unelected and conservative-controlled political watchdog.

A brother of President Mohammad Khatami and head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) -- the Islamic republic's largest pro-reform party -- said the move by the Guardians' Council was a mockery of democratic values.

"This is the biggest rejection of candidates in Iranian parliamentary history. If this decision is upheld, it will show that religious democracy is nothing but a mere slogan," said Mohammad Reza Khatami, another MP whose candidacy was also barred.

The Majlis building, where reformist MPs were gathering for a sit-in, would be transformed into "a centre of resistance against this illegal action," he said.

According to Mirdamadi, the bulk of disqualified MPs were found by the Guardians' Council to have been in violation of an article in the electoral law which stipulates candidates for public office must show their commitment to Islam and respect the revolutionary principle that gives Ayatollah Ali Khamenei his position of supreme leader of the Islamic republic.