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Factions start Iran election campaigns

Iranian political factions yesterday started campaigning for next week's legislative election, which is expected to see conservatives cement their grip on parliament.

Campaigning was officially allowed to start at midnight ahead of the election next Friday, official media reported.

Reformists have complained that hundreds of their candidates have been disqualified in the pre-vote vetting process, effectively wrecking their chances of wresting back control of the 290-seat chamber from conservatives.

Interior ministry figures show 4,476 candidates have been cleared to stand.

Islamic leaders have urged a clean campaign and a high turnout to show Western enemies the country is unified at a time of mounting tensions over its controversial nuclear program.

State television has in the last days been carrying interviews with prominent personalities, such as Olympic weightlifting champion Hossein Rezazadeh, urging voters to cast their ballots.

The authorities will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2004 election, where only just over half the electorate voted.

"The behavior of the Iranian people in the elections will be against the expectations of American officials," Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said.

He also appeared to deny reports that the authorities were considering blocking the Internet on election day, describing such suggestions as "rumors."

"We are seeking to develop communication and we are not supposed to be turning back the clock by cutting the Internet," he said.

But he also said that large posters showing pictures of candidates would not be allowed, in a change from previous election campaigns.

"The candidates can use their traditional methods for campaigning, except for putting up posters and tracts in public. They can use text messages, Internet and e-mail," he said.

There is little doubt that religious conservatives will firm their grip on power in the elections, pushing aside some of the veteran politicians who helped found the Islamic Republic 29 years ago.

Political analysts have been predicting that conservative politicians, many of them close to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will consolidate their power in the elections, a process that began with parliamentary elections four years ago and continued with Ahmadinejad's election in 2005.

"The significance of this election lies in the fact that barring political rivals from entering elections has become an established part of political life," said Abbas Abdi, a political analyst in Tehran.

A hard-line group of clerics called the Guardian Council reviews the candidate lists. Earlier reviews barred many reform-minded politicians from running, accusing them of not being loyal to the revolution. Final decisions were being sent to the candidates on Wednesday, but were not expected to be known for a few days because they are not announced publicly.

Many prominent politicians stayed out of the race to avoid humiliation, they said privately. Ali Eshraghi, the grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the revolution, withdrew in protest after his candidacy was rejected.

Politicians close to reformist former president Mohammad Khatami said that, with the rejections, they expected to field candidates for only about 110 seats in the 290-seat assembly, and that those who were left would keep a low profile.

"They can probably become a useless minority in parliament," said Alireza Rajai, a political analyst.

The conservatives are divided between Ahmadinejad's supporters and his critics.

But without the need for many of them to campaign vigorously, and with a confusing lineup that makes it hard for voters to identify supporters and critics, their positions are unlikely to become clear. Ahmad Tavakoli, an outspoken critic, appears on what was thought to be his supporters' list, for example, as does Ali Larijani, who resigned as Iran's chief negotiator on its nuclear program because of differences with the president.

Most members of the new ruling class have military backgrounds but little history in the struggles against the prerevolutionary government that had shaped politicians' eligibility for many years.

The new leaders call themselves Principlists, a reference to their belief in the principles of Islam, which they say have been neglected. Their stance has won them strong support from the Guardian Council, which also declared many of the reformists ineligible in the previous parliamentary elections.
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