Iranians Vote, Or Boycott

Iranians torn between conservatives urging them to vote and reformers calling for a boycott cast ballots in mosques and cemeteries Friday in parliamentary elections marred by the disqualification of hundreds of liberal candidates.

The country's supreme leader said a boycott organized by reformers would not sway those who wanted to vote, and reformist President Mohammad Khatami urged people to accept the outcome, "whatever the result."

With the outcome expected to restore hard-line control of the 290-seat chamber, the drama was more about how many votes will be cast.

State television broadcast a stream of comments from people saying that voting would show Iran's defiance against "enemies" — which means the United States to most conservatives.

"We can gouge out the eyes of the enemy," one man in northern Iran told state TV. "Each vote is like a slap to America's face."

Iran's hardliners often cast their local rivals as U.S. allies and blame internal problems on the United States, which many loathe for its support for Israel and its backing of a 1953 coup that ousted a democratic government and restored a monarchy.

Reformers urged a mass boycott after the conservative theocracy banned more than 2,400 candidates. The blacklist included the core ranks of reformist activists and politicians demanding ruling clerics cede some of their almost limitless powers.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — the country's top political and religious authority — voted about 30 minutes after polls opened Friday morning.

Iranians voted at mosques, desert outposts for nomads and even cemeteries for those making the traditional weekly visit to graves.

"You see how those who are against the Iranian nation and the revolution are trying so hard to prevent people from going to the polls," Khamenei told state television in Tehran. "I do not think these enthusiastic young people will be prevented from fulfilling their duty."

Boycott backers used e-mail, Web sites and a blitz of mobile phone text messages to urge voters to stay away. The main Web site of the Islamic Participation Front, the main reformist group, appeared blocked by state-imposed filters.

Conservatives responded with the full power of state media: nonstop radio and television coverage with pro-vote comments from citizens and leaders and claims of a massive turnout. At a mosque in central Tehran, loudspeakers broadcast voting appeals.

At one polling station in Tehran, about 20 conservative girls, all dressed in black chadors, waited to vote.

"I'm voting for the first time," said 16-year-old Sara Nazari. "This is a very important moment for the country."

It was difficult to independently gauge the voter response. Some downtown Tehran ballot stations were virtually empty, but other areas around the country reported a steady flow of voters.

"The lower the numbers, the bigger the reformers' silent victory," said political analyst Davoud Hermidas Bavand.

For the first time, state television included an English-language news scroll in an apparent effort to persuade foreign journalists that turnout was huge.

A sharp drop in voter turnout could embarrass the Islamic establishment and taint the new parliament. For reformers, it also would be considered an encouraging sign of public support.

A landslide win in elections four years ago gave reformists a majority in parliament. But all attempts at significant changes were blocked by the non-elected clerical authorities led by Khamenei — whose backers consider him answerable only to God.

Reformers hope voter participation falls by at least half in their urban strongholds such as the capital, Tehran. Parliament elections in 2000 attracted 67.2 percent of voters nationwide and 46.9 percent in Tehran province.

More than 46 million people — aged 15 and over — were eligible to vote. No voting was planned in Bam in southeastern Iran, which was devastated by an earthquake Dec. 26.

The clerical leadership is seeking a significant turnout to display their enduring strength 25 years after the Islamic Revolution.

Billboards and pamphlets carried statements from the leader of the 1979 revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, equating voting with patriotism.

"Some people are whispering not to vote. They are traitors to Islam and the country," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told worshippers at Friday prayers at Tehran University. Jannati leads the powerful Guardian Council, which banned the pro-reform candidates.

The election showdown also coincided with a show of force by conservatives.

The last major pro-reform newspapers in Tehran were banned Thursday by the hard-line judiciary. The two dailies — Yas-e-nou and Sharq — published portions of a statement from pro-reform lawmakers that attacked Khamenei and said freedom was being "trampled in the name of Islam."

Judiciary agents also searched and closed an election monitoring office of the main reformist party, the Islamic Participation Front. The group's headquarters, however, continued to operate.

The election dispute has served to clarify reformers' strategy.

In recent years, they attempted to wage campaigns from the parliament floor. Now, they appear to be focusing direct pressure at Khamenei and his inner circle to make groundbreaking concessions: Give up some powers to allow elected officials a greater voice.

Their other targets include guaranteeing more Western-style openness in political and business affairs, and accelerating the easing of Islamic social restrictions that President Mohammad Khatami began after his first election in 1997.

But Khatami has been disgraced as a reformist leader after bowing to pressure and urging a large turnout. A grim-looking Khatami cast his ballot early Friday, saying: "Whatever the result of the elections, we must accept it."

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, one of Iran's most influential reform figures, said she would stay away because most of the well-known liberal candidates were banned.

Speaking in Rome, she predicted a hard-liner victory "will not be rosy."