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Iran votes and reformists sit out

A boy casts his mother's vote in the parliamentary elections at the Keramat mosque in Mashhad, about 800 kms east of Tehran, Iran, on Friday. PHOTO: AP

Exhorted by prayer leaders and state media, Iranians yesterday voted in a disputed parliamentary election overshadowed by a ban on most reformist candidates and a crackdown on pro-reform media.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Islamic Republic's enemies were trying to deter young people from voting -- an apparent reference to a boycott by banned reformist lawmakers and student groups.

"You see how those who are against the Iranian nation and the revolution are trying so hard to prevent people from going to the polls," Khamenei said.

"I do not think these enthusiastic young people will be prevented from fulfilling their duty."

Foreshadowing a likely dispute over the turnout, the reformist-run Interior Ministry and the hard-line Guardian Council, an unelected watchdog that vets candidates and validates the results, clashed over the size of the electorate.

The ministry said 46,351,032 Iranians aged 15 and over were entitled to vote, according to the Iran Statistics Centre. The Guardian Council, whose 12 members are all appointed directly or indirectly by Khamenei, put the electorate at 43 million.

"The figure given by the Guardian Council on the number of voters in the country is incorrect," a statement posted on the Interior Ministry Web site said.

Conservatives seem certain to dominate the new assembly after the Guardian Council disqualified 2,500 reformist candidates and a further 1,179 contenders withdrew.

That left 4,446 contestants for 289 seats. The 290th, for the earthquake-stricken city of Bam, will be contested later.

State media, controlled by the conservatives, pulled out all the stops to boost the turnout, broadcasting patriotic songs and images of mass voting in past elections, to legitimize a poll that pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami has branded "unfair."

Reflecting the official line, one 15-year-old first-time voter interviewed by state television in the northern town of Sari said: "I feel I am slapping America in the face with my vote and showing them that my country is independent."

The election could halt Khatami's much-obstructed drive to liberalize the 25-year-old Islamic state, which fostered lively political debate.

Disenchantment with his failure to achieve more during seven years in office meant many voters were likely simply to stay at home.

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