Little choice for Iranians at polls

IRAN: Prisoner No. 4415 spent eight long years in an Iraqi prisoner of war camp during the Iran-Iraq war. He was just 15 when captured near the border town of Shoush, and 23 when he returned to Iran as a war hero and darling of the Islamic revolution, writes Caitriona Palmer from Tehran

Now 15 years on, this sitting MP and man of impeccable revolutionary credentials has just been told that he lacks the necessary commitment to Islam to run in today's parliamentary elections.

Reza Yousefian, MP for Shiraz and a medical doctor, is philosophical about his fate and doesn't think that his war credentials should earn him any special places on today's ballot.

"I am not claiming that because I was in prison they should qualify me," he said. "I am an Iranian and have all the correct conditions for standing. They should recognise my right to be a candidate and if the people don't want me then that's OK."

But Iranians don't have much say as to who appears on today's ballot. Last month, the Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 hard-line conservatives, decided that some 3,600 largely reformist candidates should be struck from the electoral roll.

Despite resignations, a parliamentary sit-in and appeals to Iran's highest authority, the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, only a third of the disqualified candidates were reinstated.

With 2,400 candidates still off the ballot, the country's theocratic leaders are being accused of organising a sham election. And with a majority of voters expected to stay away from the polls, the conservatives are sure to regain control of parliament by mobilising their loyal supporters.

"It is a handpicked parliament," said Dr Yousefian. "It is seen that way both nationally and internationally. This next parliament will not be a true one".

In the traffic-clogged streets of Tehran, it's difficult to see signs of a major election on the way. There are no big rallies or door-to-door canvassing. Stern-faced, bearded candidates look down on passing pedestrians from a few cheaply made electoral posters. The odd bit of bunting flutters lamely between bare trees.

Even at conservative party headquarters, the atmosphere seems a little lacklustre for a group of politicians poised for imminent victory. At the offices of the Developers for an Islamic Iran, two candidates in ill-fitting suits languidly took questions from a meagre gathering of journalists.

"The previous parliament didn't fully understand the desires of the people," said candidate and dentist Ali Riaz. "In that parliament they were more concerned with politics than with economics."

With electoral victory assured for the conservatives, talk has already turned to how political and social freedoms will fare under a conservative-dominated parliament.

There are worrying signs. On Wednesday, two leading reformist papers were shut down by the judiciary for publishing a letter in which reformist lawmakers criticised the supreme leader. Several reformist MPs are facing possible prosecution for questioning the wisdom of the theocratic establishment.

As for Reza Yousefian, he plans to return to his medical practice in Shiraz. He and his colleagues say their hopes of incremental reform inside the "system" have been dashed.

Now the reformists are talking about changing the constitution, pushing for a genuine parliamentary democracy and reaching out to secular groups that have long questioned clerical rule.

"It's a new era," Dr Yousefian said.