CRUCIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN STARTS AMIDST NATIONALIST SLOGANS
By a special Correspondent in the Iranian Capital
TEHRAN, 10th (IPS) Iran's crucial parliamentary election campaign officially opened on Thursday amidst unprecedented campaigning limitation for the 6083 candidates who are not allowed using colour posters or larger than 15X20 centimetre to woo voters in just one week for the next 290 seats Majles, or parliament.
Despite the ruling conservatives who until now have constantly controlled the 272 seats Majles efforts to stop another landslide victory for supporters of reforms, observers generally give the hard liners as the main losers.
Eyewitnesses observed the "eye-catching" absence of religious-oriented themes from campaign slogans.
"Iran for all Iranians" is the slogan of the Islamic Iran's Participation Party (IIPP) that supports President Mohammad Khatami and is led by his younger brother, Dr Mohammad Reza Khatami, 40, endorsed by the leading pro-reform organisations.
Dr. Khatami is seconded by another Doctor, Ali Reza Nouri, the 36 years old brother of hojatoleslam Abdollah Nouri, the former Interior Minister and publisher of the banned daily "Khordad', jailed late last year on order of ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the lamed and badly embattled leader of the Islamic regime.
His daring defence of the right of women, of secularist and nationalist political parties, his call for normalisation with the United States and even Israel and above all, his defence of the grand ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri, Muslim Shi'a's most senior "source of imitation" during his six days trial by the biased, controversial, conservatives-controlled Clergymen's Special Tribunal won him an immense popularity, mostly with the youn ones who make more than half the voters.
Even conservative and religious-based organisations have for the first time shed their Islamic slogans, using nationalist themes as "Let's Live Happy, Friendly and Prosperous".
Unlike past elections, many candidates are seen with ties, clean, unshaved. Women candidates are no more covered with black tchador, but wear scarves, letting their beauty to be seen.
Also absent from the campaign slogans and posters are those of both ayatollah Khameneh'i and his predecessor, grand ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.
Observers say the main battle would be waged between the IIPP and the Reconstruction Party that has listed former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has his main battle horse.
If elected, ayatollah Rafsanjani would become the next Speaker, a job he has held before, but some political observers say they would not be surprised at his defeat for the top Majles post, considering his growing unpopularity among the voters and his role in the assassination of more than 80 dissident intellectuals and politicians during his eight years of presidency that ended in 1997.
"Rafsanjani is an incarnation of the past," writer Dariush Abdali has told the French News Agency AFP. "Khatami represents the future."
Because of the important role he played in convincing Mr. Khameneh'i to get out the popular hojatoleslam Abdollah Nouri out of the race, voters, mostly young ones, are generally expected to refuse their vote to Rafsanjani.
"With the arrival of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the race, the 2nd Khordad groups (that supports reforms and backs the President) got a political shock", MrMohammad Reza Taraqi, a hard line MP told the conservative-controlled Tehran Times, adding that that he had authentic information that there are five million identity cards of those who have either died or listed missing for one or other reasons.
Elections in Iran are generally clean, compared to other third world nations.
"Jame'e Rouhaniyat-e Mobarez (JRM) can still rightly boast that it has more support of the masses than the 2nd Khordad," Taraqi claimed.
Reformers have expressed confidence in their chances of taking over parliament in the February 18 vote, with Mohammad-Reza Khatami predicting the conservatives will win no more than 25 percent of the MP seats.
But analysts predicts that the next Majles would be filled with "Lilliputians", divided in three more or less equal factions made of reformists, conservatives and independents who would play the role of "king-makers".
"Except for Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani who has been endorsed by all conservative formations plus 2 factions belonging to the reformist coalition, no other striking personality emerges", observes Mr. Mas'oud Behnoud, a prominent Iranian journalist.
Unlike many other places, Iran allows candidates to appear on a multitude of party lists, giving a decisive advantage to people such as Rafsanjani who are household names.
Without a veto to override the legislature, Khatami has been hamstrung by the conservatives in parliament and needs control of the legislature to make rapid progress with his reforms. ENDS ELECTION CAMPAIGN 10200