[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[stefania]

Iran's Reformist Look to Regroup for Presidential Poll

February 22, 2004
Agence France Presse
Peter Mackler



Divided, discredited and bracing for a hardline crackdown after their rout from parliament, beleaguered Iranian reformers are vowing to press on and regroup for next year's presidential election.

Pro-reform movements could take little comfort in Friday's legislative polls that looked set to produce a solid conservative majority and a voter turnout large enough to thwart hopes for an effective boycott.

They were also fearing renewed pressure from an unforgiving judiciary which already closed down two of their newspapers last week for publishing remarks critical of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But pro-democracy leaders were not ready to throw in the towel on their largely frustrated efforts to open up Iranian society since taking over the government with the election of President Mohammad Khatami in 1997.

"We think we will be quick to come back," said Mostafa Tajzadeh, a leading member of the main reformist group in the outgoing parliament, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF).

"We are going to restructure our party. We will have more exposure with the people," Tajzadeh told a news conference Saturday. "It is a good opportunity for us."

The reformers say they had no hope of holding onto the 290-seat parliament after their clerical regime's Guardians Council disqualified most of their candidates in Friday's contests.

But they see a more level playing field in the race for a successor to Khatami, who chalked up 77 percent of the vote in winning a second and final term that expires in June 2005.

"If the Guardians Council does not reject our candidate, we have a chance to win the presidential election," Tajzadeh said.

The dissident camp sees the poll as putting the conservatives in a bind. A free vote would put the presidency up for grabs; any move to disqualify reform candidates could produce an embarrassingly low turnout.

But if the reformers still feel they have some tactical cards to play while licking their wounds from the stinging parliamentary defeat, they have some hurdles to surmount before returning as a credible political force.

For one, they are badly split: the IIPF and its ally the Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organisation boycotted the legislative polls while Khatami and his Association of Combattant Clerics chose to take part.

They are also expecting more heat from a conservative regime emboldened by Friday's voter turnout of about 50 percent, lower than the 67 percent who cast ballots in 2000 but higher than the forecast of boycott proponents.

"The higher the turnout the more the conservatives will be able to limit (the reformers') political margin of maneuver," said Rajab Ali Mazrouie, a member of the IIPF and outgoing legislator.

More fundamentally, the reformers will have to overcome growing apathy among a young electorate that has become disillusioned with the amiable but largely ineffectual Khatami and his government.

The 66-year-old president has been criticised for failing to push a range of initiatives, from reining in the power of the judiciary to abolishing torture, through the conservative clergy.

Iranians also reproach his administration for failing to devote enough attention to economic problems in the country plagued by high unemployment and inflation.

The political stalemate has produced declining voter turnout rates, with less than half the eligible 46.3 million voters taking part in local elections last year - 12 percent in Tehran.

But analysts said low turnouts favor the conservatives since it is usually younger, reform-minded Iranians who tend to stay away from the polls while the hardliners can usually count on their core support.





Then Iran va Jahan posted this pic:




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Referendum AFTER Regime Change

"I'm ready to die for you to be able to say your own opinions, even if i strongly disagree with you" (Voltaire)