High turnout in presidential poll

Iranians went to the polls on Friday to vote for a new president, with many saying the elections are the tightest and most unpredictable in the 26-year history of the Islamic Republic. Early indications showed that the turnout was dramatically higher than expected. There were fears of a low turnout – unofficial opinion polls predicted a turnout of just 40 per cent, an embarrassingly low figure for a country where turnout is regularly as high as 70 per cent. Analysts have said a low turnout would question the legitimacy of the regime. Some 47 million people, many of them under 30, are eligible to vote and they must pick their president from a choice of seven after over 1,000 candidates were disqualified by the hardline Guardian council, a deeply religious unelected vetting body of 12 clerics and judges. A boycott movement, spearhead by student groups, also looked like it had failed to materialise. Many Iranians who had turned their backs on the reform movement, after President Khatami’s promised reforms were blocked by the Guardian Council. Human rights lawyer and Nobel Laureate, Shirin Ebadi, publicly declared she would not be voting. “Any ruling by the Guardians Council on the competence of candidates is a violation of the law and a restriction of people's rights," she said in a statement. But as Mustafa Moin, the reformist’s main candidate, has radicalised his campaign the reformists are experiencing a resurgence. Moin has dared to cross the Islamic Republic’s so-called ‘red lines’. He has joined forces with a banned liberal group whose members are regularly imprisoned and who advocate a more Western style of democracy, Moin is also calling for the release of all political prisoners. He has even questioning the absolute power of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamanei. Attracting student voters – who were crucial in giving Khatami his victories in 1997 and 2001 – Moin has promised to tackle Iran’s bad human rights record and he has vowed to work towards a more open democracy. “I wasn’t going to vote. But when Moin started to talk about human rights and democracy, I realised how important my vote was. Even if he doesn’t win, it’s a message to the regime,” said 21-year old Keyvan, a student of polictal science at Tehran University. But with increasing unemployment – unofficial estimates are as high as 20 per cent – and deeply entrenched conservative values, human rights is not at the top of the agenda for the majority of Iranians. “Freeing political prisoners won’t feed my children,” said 24-year-old Massah at a polling station in south Tehran, a poor, working class district. Massah declined to say who she was voting for but did say it will be a conservative who understands her values. The frontrunner in the presidential race is powerful ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. A political chameleon, he is viewed as the man who can solve Iran’s nuclear crisis – an increasingly important issue for Iranians – and resolve ties with the West, including ending a 25 year détente with arch foe, the US. In a bid to lure the youth vote – half of Iran’s population is under 25 and the age of voting in Iran is only 15 – Rafsanjani has promised more freedom and a loosening of social strictures. Seen as the second most powerful man in Iran after the Supreme Leader, his supporters say he is the only man with the clout to make real changes. Conservative candidates, who remained absent in many of the opinion polls, are posing a threat. Conservative ex-police chief Mohammad Qalibaf has re-branded himself as a dashing modernist who moonlights as an airline pilot in a bid to secure middle class voters. Tehran’s ex-mayor, conservative candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejat, is gaining ground in poorer quarters. It will be a close race, with analysts predicting that no one candidate will gain the 50 per cent majority needed for a straight win. In this case, the top two candidates will make it to a second round, slated for seven days hence. Pre-election atmosphere in Iran has been tense. Less than a week before the elections, a series of bombs exploded in the province of Khuzestan and in Tehran, killing seven people and injuring over a hundred. Arab separatists groups were blamed but no one has claimed responsibility. A demonstration in central Tehran for women’s rights was met by heavy handed policing and there were arrests at a pre-election demonstration on Thursday night, where demonstrators were chanting ‘democracy’.