Reformists to try to prevent Islamic Republic's overthrow by adopting election strategy

TEHRAN - Iran's main reformist party opened a two-day congress aimed at mapping a strategy for upcoming parliamentary elections, amid signs that voter frustration could deal the embattled camp a serious defeat.

Addressing a gathering of some 200 top party members, Islamic Iran Participtaion Front leader Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of Iran's president, issued a stern warning to hardliners to stop blocking reforms.

"Reformists are trying to prevent the present social movement from being transformed into a violent polictical revolt or into a scenario of an overthrow (of the regime) from outside the country," he said in his opening speech.

"Reforms will continue and deepen in a movement that is calm and progressive," he added.

"We are confronted by two visions of the Islamic republic," Mohammad Reza said, pointing to hardline-run courts and legislative oversight bodies who favour "power without limits" on one side and "those who believe everything must be done in accordance with the law" -- the reformists -- on the other.

"The reformists movement always respects the framework of the law and non-violence," he asserted.

He also hit out at the Islamic republic's powerful religious hardliners for turning the burgeoning youth population away from their faith and country.

"A great part of the youth are fleeing religion, in particular the social role of religion," the younger brother of the president said. "I say clearly that when people are fleeing religion and the Islamic republic, the reason is a violent and dictatorial interpretation of religion."

Led by the IIPF and rallying around President Mohammad Khatami, the reformists have controlled Iran's parliament since 2000, when they swept to power on a youth vote and a platform of shaking up the way Iran is governed.

But little of their agenda has made it into law, leading to major frustration among young people, students and women who rallied behind the movement.

The cause, reformists complain, is the overwhelming power wielded by hardliners in the judiciary, state media, security forces and legislative watchdogs that frequently turf out reform initiatives passed by a reformist parliament they see as trying to undermine the foundations of the regime.

A bid by parliament to give greater powers to the president and strip conservative oversight bodies of their right to vet electoral candidates, seen as a last-ditch reform bid, appears to have failed.

And the mandate of the Majlis runs out early next year, with parliamentary elections scheduled for February 20.

Amid widepsread frustration with the political deadlock, voters showed their disdain in February 2003, when municipal elections saw an all-time low turnout for a country where voter participation regularly exceeds three-quarters of the electorate.

With just a tiny percentage of people bothering to cast their ballots, conservatives -- relying on a committed, hardcore support base -- won the day. Analysts see the very same happening in Febraury.

1 posted on 10/16/2003 3:20:19 PM PDT by Cyrus the Great

The Iraq regime was destroyed from outside.

Hopefully,the Iranian will be destroyed from the inside.

Then, we can concentrate on Syria and Saudi.

2 posted on 10/16/2003 3:23:11 PM PDT by Lurker (Some people say you shouldn't kick a man when he's down. I say there's no better time to do it.)

3 posted on 10/16/2003 3:40:55 PM PDT by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)

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