"Khatami is like a chess player who has but a few un-important pieces on his hands and is going to loose them on Friday", said the "Tages Zeitung" of Berlin, adding the conservatives would certainly win the race, not because of having gained in popularity, but because the majority of the population that want changes have lost all the hopes they had placed on the reformists and have no desire in going to the polls for an election that had turned into a farcical selection".

"Die Presse" of Vienna says that the calls by Khatami and Khameneh’i urging mass participation "would not be heard by voters who, deceived by the unpopular conservatives and the powerless reformists, have realized the futility of the voting".

"On the eve of the balloting, odds are that Tehran would beat all the records of abstention, the sprawling Iranian Capital being the first victim of the chieftains war that pitted the conservative and the reformist wings of the leadership against each other for weeks", the paper wrote.

According to Ms Mouna Naim of "Le Monde", a low turn out would be seen as a "disgrace" of a regime that the population has understood its impasse, "thus sending both factions back to back".

"With most reformist candidates barred from standing and public indifference widespread, the only element of suspense was how many of Iran's 46.3 million eligible voters would turn out", the French news agency AFP said in a dispatch from Tehran.

Veteran Iranian journalist Amir Taheri says the Iranian election experience puts an end to several illusions.

"The Iranian electoral recipe is simple and efficient. It starts by making sure that all the candidates are handpicked for their total loyalty to the leader. Next it makes sure that there is no real election campaign. The candidates are not allowed to criticize the leadership. Nor can they offer programs that differ with the essential options of the leadership", he observed, adding, "The purpose of elections in such a system is not to challenge the government of the day and to offer alternative policy choices. It is to pay allegiance to the rulers".

"They closed the daily not simply because of the letter, but also because of the worry that the two papers would disclose the real turnout of the election on Friday", the Financial Times quoted Mr. Akbar Montajebi, Yas-e No's political correspondent.

Mr. Issa Saharkhiz, a reformist journalist and former deputy culture minister, told the British news agency Reuters he expected hard-liners to ban more newspapers and possibly outlaw the Participation Front, led by the president's brother, Mohammad Reza Khatami, and another reformist group, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Revolution Party.

The blocking of the sites appears to reflect concern over coverage of the election, and especially the sensitive issue of voter turnout.

"General disillusionment seems likely to produce a low poll. IIPF and Islamic Revolution Mojahedeen Organisation, one of the best organized groups supporting Mr. Khatami as well as the main students and women groups are boycotting the election.