Is there anyone left in Iran who is not a Khatamist? The final count in the Islamic Republic's sixth parliamentary elections is not in yet, but if reports from such unlikely quarters as the holy city of Qom and the traditionally conservative Bazaar are to be believed, the Iranian President has achieved a near unanimous mandate for his reform programme.
Some conservative candidates admitted defeat in advance; they published their campaign advertising in reformist newspapers, knowing that no one reads the right-wing dailies.
At polling stations yesterday, residents of the capital spoke with daring of their dislike for the old politicians - of Iran's highest-ranking official, the Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who led the conservatives' list. "We don't want to be ruled by them anymore", a 60-year old man with white hair said.
But why would life be any different under the reformers? "Because they are new," he said. "They are young. They have university diplomas and they are going to make a difference."
But what can it mean to be a Khatamist when even leaders of the post-revolution terror - such as the "hanging judge", Ayatollah Khalkali - now claim to support the reformist President? Is it possible that the fundamentalists are trying to dilute Mr Khatami's power by rallying to him? Or avoid punishment for misdeeds by joining a winning ticket?
Although former extremists have joined Mr Khatami's Participation Front, "we know who they are, and we won't vote for them," a mechanical engineer said in a polling station.
One frequent argument was that the mullahs who misgoverned have been converted by Mr Khatami, that some regret their abuses. "Those people who didn't believe in human rights and democracy have changed," Mrs Jamileh Kadivar, a candidate in Tehran said. Seven per cent of the 5,193 parliamentary candidates are women. She hopes the new parliament will change laws that discriminate against women in divorce, child custody and blood money.
"Those people who were against democracy and a free press have totally changed the way they talk - they say they want human rights and reform too," Mrs Kadivar, a former press adviser to President Khatami, continued. "They have understood that they cannot do what they did before and stay in power. There is a new literature in Iranian politics."
Her family provides a prime example of "what they did before". The conservatives have tried repeatedly to impeach her husband, the Culture Minister, Mr Ataollah Mohajerani. Her brother, Hojatolislam Mohsen Kadivar, has served 11 months of a 17-month sentence in Evin prison. She is allowed to visit him twice a month.
"He talked in the mosque about killings of writers in Iran, and they thought he was accusing the government," Mrs Kadivar explained. "They claimed he compared what happened before the revolution with what happened after. He also said that religious people should not be in government. He did not say we should separate politics and Islam; that is not possible, because Islam is a very political religion."
Charges that her brother had "insulted Islam" were merely an excuse, Mrs Kadivar said. "It was because he is a mullah and he is young and he had influence in Islamic schools and universities. They wanted to stop him."
If she obtains one of the 30 Tehran seats in parliament - which appears likely - and if the reformers' majority is confirmed, Mrs Kadviar said the legislature could not pardon her brother, since "we have separation of powers in Iran". But with time, "maybe we can do something to reform the justice system, bring all the courts under one law. It will be too late to help my brother, but it may help others."
Reuters reports:
A leading conservative Iranian cleric expressed hope yesterday that British novelist Salman Rushdie would be killed, as decreed by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. "This decree is divine and unalterable and no religious scholar . . . can revoke it. God willing, it will be carried out," Iran's official news agency, IRNA, quoted Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi as saying.