Iranian Students Criticize Khatami Over Election

[democratic]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4361208

By Paul Hughes
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's main pro-reform student group strongly criticized President Mohammad Khatami Sunday for agreeing to hold a parliamentary election which leading reformists say has been rigged by hard-liners.

The students urged voters to shun Friday's vote, for which more than 2,500 candidates have been barred by an unelected hard-line watchdog, and said turnout would be a "symbolic referendum" on the Islamic state's clerical establishment.

The statement from the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU) student organization was a further blow to Khatami, whose 1997 and 2001 election wins were backed by millions of young Iranians excited by his reformist message.

But the mid-ranking cleric's inability to break resistance from religious hard-liners to his calls for greater social and personal freedoms has seen his popularity plunge, particularly among the two Iranians in three who are aged under 30.

"By accepting to hold the elections...Khatami has proved that he prioritizes the demands of senior officials and religious decrees at the price of sacrificing justice, freedom and people's rights," the OCU said in its statement.

Several prominent reformist parties are boycotting the vote. The Interior Ministry said Sunday that 607 out of some 5,600 candidates approved to run have withdrawn from the race.

Conservatives say those banned were unfit for office and accuse them of trying to turn Iran, which is marking the 25th anniversary of its Islamic revolution, into a secular state.

"The number of votes cast will be a symbolic referendum measuring the legitimacy of the establishment in the eyes of Iranian citizens," the OCU said.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Related Strory (BBC, Feb 15): Defeat looms for Iran reformists

From the BBC Online
Dateed Sunday February 15 20:29 GMT (12:29 pm PST)

Defeat looms for Iran reformists

The main reformist coalition taking part in Iran's controversial election says it expects to lose after many candidates were disqualified.1
"We will be a minority in parliament," said Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour of the Reformist Coalition for Iran.
Some 2,500 reformists were barred from the 20 February poll by the right-wing vetting body, the Guardian Council.
A prominent Iranian dissident, Hashem Aghajari, has urged people to adopt a policy of passive resistance.

Read more.