Size of Khatami's win only issue

By Kesava Menon

TEHERAN, JUNE 8. Iran's eighth Presidential election held today, was less about the outcome than about the size of the turnout and the margin of Mr. Mohammed Khatami's much anticipated victory. The incumbent President needed the vast majority of Iran's 42 million voters to go to the polling stations and vote for him so as to demonstrate that he retained a massive mandate for reform. As of this afternoon he seemed to be on track on both counts.

An hour or so after the polls opened this morning it did appear that Mr. Khatami would be hard-pressed to match the benchmark set up in the 1997 Presidential election - 70 per cent of the vote in a 90 per cent turn out. The kind of fervour on display in the last major Iranian election, the parliamentary poll of February 2000, also appeared to be missing. In contrast to the thin crowds at polling stations and the near deserted streets were the scenes in the hills and valleys of the city's Dorband quarter as scores of Iranians trekked to the cooler heights to enjoy an early summer holiday.

The scenes at Dorband were a bad sign for the pro- reform camp as most of those apparently less than enthusiastic about the polls were the younger voters who have been a bulwark of support for the President. Some of them said they had already voted while others said they would be voting later in the day. But this lot at least did not display the fervour similar segments of the population showed four years ago or even a year ago.

A major problem for the reform camp is that they have been in charge of the executive and legislative branches with little to show for it. Iranian voters, of course, know that the executive and legislative branches can do only so much in the face of the entrenched power of the non-elected segments of the theocracy. The hope for quick reform which characterised the vote in 1997 and 2000 appeared to have been sapped by the realisation that change would only come through a long and grinding process.

One silver lining for the reform camp in the early morning was that voters in the 40-60 age group were turning out. There were fears that this segment might have become even more disillusioned than younger voters about the prospects for reform under the Khatami dispensation. Middle-aged voters appeared to lead the way in demonstrating that the need to vote was an imperative.

The bright streak widened considerably by noon. Crowds had so swelled at the city's Hussein Ershad mosque, the cradle of the Islamic Revolution, that the line of voters curled around the block. Numbers had swelled at the other polling stations as well. The usual practise in Iranian elections is to keep the polling stations open as long as there are people lining up to vote. Voting usually carries on late into the night and from what could be seen today, the pattern is not likely to be any different.

If it is any indication, the reception that the Defence Minister, Vice-Admiral Ali Shamkhani got when he turned up to vote should show how this election is going. Vice-Admiral Shamkhani has been considered as being among the two or three of Mr. Khatami's rivals who could display some strength at the polls. But when he landed up to cast his vote, presumably for himself, he had barely three people in attendance and the rest of the voters seemed totally indifferent.

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Section  : International
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