BY VOTING MASSIVELY FOR KHATAMI, IRANIANS AGAIN SURPRISED THE WORLD
TEHRAN 10 JUNE (IPS) By voting overwhelmingly for Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami, giving him another landslide victory over his nine other rivals, Iranian voters, young and feminine in its great majority, once again surprised the world and themselves.
According to the latest statistics released by Iranian Interior Ministry,
President Khatami won 21,659,053 out of 28,160,405 votes cast in the elections,
breaking his own record of the May 1997 presidential elections.
But the leader-controlled Voice and Visage (Radio and Television) refused to broadcast the latest results
According to the IRNA reporter, the lack of cooperation on part of the Radio-Television caused delay in announcement of the voting results.
The interior minister had called for the latest results of the elections to be recorded and broadcast by the organisation immediately after the last vote count but the authorities at the RTV channel refused, continuing to announce the previous vote count instead.
The huge turn out of some six millions first time voters was one main factor explaining the high score of the incumbent president, experts noted.
The participation to the voting was so high that the Interior Ministry had to extend the voting hours three times, ending at midnight local time.
In their first commentaries, Iranian political analysts spoke of a "(Ariel) Sharon syndrome" to explain Mr. Khatami’s outstanding triumph in the Friday presidential elections.
The same that the victory of the Likud leader Ariel Sharon helped unite Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, Iranian conservative’s last series of clampdowns, like the outlawing of the popular Islamist-nationalist and Iran Freedom Movement, the imprisonment of these organisations leaders and activists as well as the televised confessions of Mr. Ali Afshari, a young students leader and the publication in conservatives-controlled, hard-line daily a letter attributed to veteran journalist and politician Ezzatollah Sahhabi, instead of keeping the people away from ballot boxes, created a new wave in favour of the embattled President.
Another reason for the Iranians to again vote massively for Mr. Khatami was their determination to slap the conservatives, as they had deliberately thrown nine candidates against the outgoing president in order to scatter the votes, with the hope that by this procedure, he might not be elected in the first round.
In Tehran and major cities, people greeted with joy and relief the crushing victory of Mr. Khatami, having the certainty that with him, the situation would not get worse of what it is now, specially in social and cultural fields.
"National Symphony" was the title of the reformist daily "Seday Edalat" (The Voice of Justice).
Despite calls to boycott the elections made by some Iranian organisations and personalities outside, like the Monarchists or the Workers-Communist Party of Iran or Mr. Abolhasan Banisadr, Islamic Republic’s first president, turn out was also at its peak among Iranian 3 million expatriates, scattered all over the world, with more than 98 per cent of them voting for Mr. Khatami.
With the exception of Mr. Ahmad Tavakkoli who get an honourable 15 per cent of the votes and Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani slightly over two per cent, the seven other candidates had few crumbs.
"If, in May 1997 elections, by voting for Khatami, people wanted to reject the candidate of the conservatives and by the same token, express their opposition to the present theocracy, in Friday elections, they showed great maturity by insisting on the continuation of reforms, notwithstanding the blows the conservatives dealt to the process", commented Mr. Hamid Reza Jala’ipoor, Publisher of several influential and mass circulation reformists dailies, all banned by the Islamic Judiciary.
He said he hopes that as a result of people confirming their trust in Mr. Khatami, hard-line conservatives would move to the fringe, replaced by more moderate elements who would be more co-operative with the President, who, in turn, must form a more active, unified and determined cabinet.
German President Johannes Rau, rulers of several Persian Gulf Sheikhdoms, and former French President Valerie Giscard D’Estaing were among first world’s leaders to congratulate Mr. Khatami, hoping he would pursue the reforms he has started.
"The Iranian people have confirmed their trust in you in an impressive way. It has confirmed your policy of strengthening democracy, the rule of law, tolerance and the dialogue of cultures", President Rau said in his telegram of congratulation.
After the Islamic revolution of 1979, Germany became Iran’s largest exporter and political supporter.
Other electoral contenders also congratulated Mr. Khatami and assured him of their "readiness" to help him in tackling social and economic ills of the country. ENDS KHATAMI WON 10601