Mon, Dec 08, 2003 page6

• Reform-minded Iranians perceive futility in voting

  DISILLUSIONED Reformers have been discouraged by the power of hard-liners and say they see little reason to go to the ballot box

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  In 1997 Lida Salehi enthusiastically worked on the presidential campaign of Mohammad Khatami, the reformist candidate. She even talked her parents, who had not cast a ballot since the referendum in 1979 that turned Iran into an Islamic Republic, into voting for him.

  "I believed that he was the man who would bring change, especially because of what he said about freedom and democracy," said Salehi, a 25-year-old painter. She has voted for reformist politicians in three more elections since then.

  Now, with parliamentary elections scheduled for February, she and many others who supported the reformists are changing their minds, saying their support has merely resulted in a continuation of the current system.

  The most evident sign of disillusionment with Khatami's reform movement appeared in the local town council elections a year ago. Unlike those in national elections, the candidates in the local elections had not been vetted by the hard-line Guardian Council, which has been a powerful deterrent in keeping voters at bay.

  The turnout in large cities, however, was as low as 10 percent -- sharply lower than the 52 percent turnout that was recorded in 1980.

  A low voter turnout on Feb. 20 is likely to help hard-line politicians galvanize their support and win control of parliament, which is now in the hands of reformists. Tehran's municipal council was easily conquered last year by hard-liners, who have reversed liberal plans for modernizing the city.

  The new mayor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, turned several art galleries into prayer centers during the Islamic religious month of Ramadan, canceled concerts and suspended many events at the city's cultural centers. He plans to build women-only parks.

  "People's behavior last year showed that people do not want just to vote for candidates," Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, a reformist member of parliament, said in a recent speech at Amir Kabir University, referring to the low voter turnout.

  "They want their vote to have an impact on the layers of power structure and affect their rights in society," he said.

  People discouraged about the power of the vote here point to the power exerted by appointed bodies, like the hard-line judiciary, which has jailed advocates for political change and shut down liberal newspapers, or the watchdog Guardian Council, which has blocked reform bills. Parliament, they say, has been paralyzed in trying to pass a reform agenda.

  Two-thirds of the population is under 30, and young voters are seeking more social and political freedoms. Even though President Khatami supported increasing social freedoms, many young people accuse his movement of lacking a clear strategy.

  The reform movement has been widely accused of not using its popular support and of not taking risks to achieve change.

  "We simply see no logical reason for voting in the elections," said Mehdi Habibi, a leader of the student movement called the Office for Fostering Unity, which has urged a boycott of the elections.

  "People vote so that their demands are met in the forms of laws, but we know that this is not possible in the current system anymore," he said.

  Reformists, worried about the turnout, have stepped up a campaign to draw people to the polls.

  One member of parliament, Alireza Alavitabar, said in an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency that he favored a government free of the power of the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who currently has unlimited power to determine policy.
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