"I did not vote today because those in the Majles did failed to materialize the promises for fighting inflation, soaring prices or creating more jobs, mostly for the educated. Not only I did not vote, but none of the people I know voted", one woman in the city of Karaj near Tehran told the 24-hour, Prague-based, Farsi language Radio Farda (Tomorrow).

As official media reported "warm reception" by the people and the State-owned, leader-controlled Television showed long queues of people in polling stations in Tehran and other cities, almost all foreign and independent Iranian correspondents were unanimous reporting "rather empty" voting bureaus and "massive abstention" of voters, mostly the young ones who preferred to profit from the occasion to go to mountain resorts in the outskirts of the Capital or rushing to the popular cities of the Caspian Sea.

But Western and Iranian journalists who visited several poling bureaus also noted that most of the voters were elderly, plain faithful and traditionalists visibly illiterate, bussed to the voting places open to the press, like the "Hoseynieh Ershad", where most of the high-ranking officials cast their ballots.

"In order show the mass turn out of the voters, the authorities had drastically reduced the number voting places in Tehran and other major cities, thus forcing people to walk to the few open stations heavily guarded by security forces" said the independent internet newspaper "Peykeiran" (www.peykeiran.com), placing the percentage of the voters between 5 to 15 per cent.

"Why voting when the ballot has no meaning. My young son did, cast a blank vote, just because he had been warned by his school master that if he did not, he would not be admitted to the college", a man in Mash-had, the Capital city of the north-eastern Province of Khorasan told IPS.

The Islamic Guidance and Culture Minister in charge of journalists said near 300 foreign correspondents, including photographers and television crews had come to cover the election, much less than over 300 that covered the race four years ago, Iranian embassies abroad having refused visa to many "indesirable" journalists.

"It's religious fascism", the American news agency Associated Press quoted Mr. Hamidreza Jala’ipour, a prominent and influential columnist for the now banned Yas-e-No.

"They are traitors to Islam and the country", shot back Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the Secretary of the Council of the Guardians speaking at the traditional Friday prayers.

"Of course I'm not going to vote and I don't think anyone else is. All of them (politicians) have only worked for themselves", the British news agency Reuters quoted war veteran Ali Asghar, a white-haired man with shrapnel lodged in his leg.

For her part, Nobel Peace laureate for 2003 and popular lawyer and human right activist Shirin Ebadi had also dealt a severe blow to the conservatives by stating that she would not vote "because people were not free to choose their representatives".

However, Radio and Television censored Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s short declaration to the press, changing his "people turning their back" into "the people not being in speaking term".

The CG that is controlled by the conservatives and of which the leader appoints six clerics out of its 12 members had disqualified more than 2.000 reformist candidates running for the race, including more than 80 incumbent lawmakers, among them the younger brother of the President, Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, who is both a first deputy-Speaker and General Secretary of Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), the country’s largest political formation that controlled the outgoing Majles.

Though Mr. Khameneh’i had "advised" the Guardians to "review" the list, they respectfully ignored him, provoking the anger of disqualified deputies and their decision to boycott the race.

Subsequently, more than 100 lawmakers went even further and in an open letter to Mr. Khameneh’i, they indirectly accused him of being the mastermind behind the mass rejection of reformist hopefuls.

Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, who as the Chairman of the powerful Assembly for Discerning the Interests of the State (ADIS, or the Expediency Council) sits between a leader who has been weakened in the process and a president who has lost his popularity and charisma, is considered as the real winner of the electoral crisis.

"The conservatives blamed their reformist rivals for the situation, but in fact the population had made his mind much before, realizing that under the present political system, there is no way to bring any major and real reform", noted Mr. Mohammad Mohsen Sazegara, a former "Islamist revolutionary" now struggling for a "radical change" of the theocracy into a secular and truly democracy based on the power of parliament.

"When Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami was elected to presidency in 1979 thanks to massive vote of the young generation, the Iranians were happy with the limited reforms he promised. But the system is such that he, nor the Majles he also controlled, were able to advance one single item of their reforms. As a result, what people are asking now is no more reforms in the Constitution, like limiting the powers of the Council of the Guardians or giving the president some of his constitutional responsibilities, but fundamental structural changes",

The long-standing dispute between the Interior Ministry which is in charge of the organization of the elections and the Guardian Council continued to the last minute, as voting for the 189 out of the original 290 – the earthquake-stricken region of Bam, in south-eastern Iran was not voting -- started at 8 AM local time must have ended 6 PM, but it was reported for another four hours in some places on order of the CG.

The official media said it was because of great turn out, but journalists said just the contrary, attributing to the hope of seeing late-comers to come voting, but the Interior Ministry, in a statement released late Friday night, criticized the CG for extending the legal time of voting and putting the number of eligible voters at 43 instead of the official 46.3 millions.

The Ministry also refused to give any estimate about the number of the voters, as sources close to the reformists had insisted that over 3 million ID’s belonging to dead people or forged were to be used (by the conservative clan) in today elections where, contrary to the electoral laws, having ID cards with photograph of the owner was ruled "not necessary".

An unidentified spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards, speaking on Tehran Radio as an "election expert" hold the Interior Ministry for "any possible rigging" in the elections.

Arash Qavidel, a freelance journalist covering for Radio Farda also predicted the turn out at between 20 to 35 percent for respectively Tehran and the rest of the 70 million Iran.