IRANIANS REJECTS MASSIVELY THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
LONDON 1 Jul. (IPS) Forty five per cent of Iranians think reforming the Islamic Republic is "impossible" and ninety four per cent are calling changing the present system, according to an opinion poll published Monday by pro-reforms newspaper "No Rooz", quoted by the Persian service of the BBC.
Asked what, in their opinion, President Mohammad Khatami should do in case he fails to respond to popular demands for reforms, fifty four per cent of the people, aged more than 15, questioned by the paper, said he should discuss openly his problems with the people, against 18 per cent urging him to resign and twenty per cent preferring he continue office until the end.
As seventy per cent of the inhabitants of the Capital said they do not approve of the embattled President’s policies, fifty five per cent of them said they are against his soft attitude, advising a firmer stand.
"The results from latest polls are bell tolls for both the rulers of the present regime and President Khatami", commented Mr. Sadeq Saba, BBC's senior analyst of Iranian affairs.
Another poll, conducted last month by the Interior Ministry for the top decision-makers and kept secret said out of 16.000 people questioned in Tehran and other major cities, only six per cent said they were satisfied with the present system, against 94 per cent who expressed their disapproval.
According to this poll, 45 per cent of Iranians think reforming this Islamic system is "impossible" and therefore it must be changed completely and from foundation, while 49 per cent are for gradual and peaceful reforms.
But some analysts said the results could be slightly flouted and resentments against the regime even higher, as some people might not have expressed their real sentiments of fear that those who put the questions might belong to the regime.
"Anyhow, the result from the latest polls, including the one published by No Rooz, which is close to president Khatami shows irrevocably that the number of Iranians opposed to the regime is on the constant rise. It also shows that more and more people are despairing from President Khatami and the reforms he had promised", analysts concluded, pointing out that each year, some one million young Iranians adds up to the millions already without job and facing a dark future. ENDS IRI MASSIVELY REJECTED 1702