IRAN: Iran's main pro-reform student group strongly criticised President Mohammad Khatami yesterday for agreeing to hold a parliamentary election which leading reformists say has been rigged by hardliners.
The students urged voters to shun Friday's vote, for which more than 2,500 candidates have been barred by an unelected hardline 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 organisation was a further blow to Mr 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 hardliners 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 prioritises 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The Interior Ministry said yesterday that 607 out of some 5,600 candidates approved to run have withdrawn from the race.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.
Yet the row has provoked little interest among Iranians already numbed by seven years of power struggle between Mr Khatami's reformists and hardliners.
Turnout among the 46 million eligible voters is expected to be well below the 67 per cent who voted overwhelmingly for Mr Khatami's reformist allies in 2000 parliamentary elections. "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.
Outspoken reformists, including some 80 sitting deputies barred from seeking re-election, say they will take no part in the vote. But moderates closer to Mr Khatami vowed to fight on.
"Our historical duty is to defend the reforms ... even if only one of our deputies is elected," Mr Jamileh Kadivar said.