Upcoming Elections Fail To Rouse Students
Ramin Mostaghim
TEHRAN, Jan 9 (IPS) - Iran's students, a reliable touchstone for assessing public opinion in the country, are displaying apathy towards the Feb. 20 elections to the 'majlis', Iran's 290-seat parliament. A low turn-out, fuelled by disenchantment with the political process, seems on the cards.
''The latest independent polling surveys suggest that in the parliamentary election the participation rate of people in Tehran will be 38 percent and the national average will be 45 to 50 percent,'' conceded Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the secretary-general of the Islamic Participation Party, the biggest and the most powerful reformist party, and President Mohammad Khatami's brother.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, spoke of the need for an election that would be ''healthy, free, lawful and with high turn-out of zealous people'' when during a tour he stopped at the town of Qazvin, west of Tehran, and addressed a local gathering.
In the university campuses however students criticise the Ayatollah's speeches. ''Why doesn't he register himself as a candidate for the next election and guarantee the healthy and high turn-out,'' asked 21-year-old Ahmad Husseini with a smile. Husseini, who studies mining engineering in the Amirkabir university, represents a sizeable fraction of campus reaction.
A recent survey carried out in the Amirkabir university campus indicates that around 40 percent of the students are unlikely to vote. Of the rest, around 15 percent said they would, but only with a view to helping their chances of employment after graduation.
Youth like Rouzbeh Riyazi, who at 21 is among the elected student leaders in the university, are dismayed by the barring of reformist candidates by the Council of Guardians - a conservative supervisory body composed of six experts in Islamic law, called 'mujtahids', and six civil lawyers.
Although Iran's sixth 'majlis', elected in early 2000, has seen the reformists well represented, the hardline Council of Guardians has blocked the efforts of the reform-minded - those allied with President Mohammad Khatami.
The Council plays a controversial role in the election process via its power of ''approbatory supervision''. Under Article 99 of the constitution, this is the means by which the council vets candidates for elected office, and annuls or even changes election results. Legislation introduced by the Khatami government in August 2002 was intended to reduce the Council's role in elections. In a catch-22 however, the Council must approve all legislation and had rejected the new election legislation.
It is a situation that worries many, within and outside the student community. ''Nobody can be sure there will be no implosion in Iran,'' Kamran Ahmadzadeh, a self-¡employed building contractor, told IPS. ''Reformists have occupied the majority of the parliament in the past four years but we have witnessed big and small riots in the same period.''
Yet Lila Zirvandi, a medical student, sees a vote as possibly preventing such an implosion. The reform movement's failure since 1997 to deliver on its promises has led to a widespread sense of despair in the country.
At the Tehran University, an indication of the seriousness of the issue came via a speech by Dr. Abdulkarim Soroush, a philosopher and lecturer and an expert on Rumi, the mystical 13th century poet of Persia. Rumi's verse is much loved by pro-reform students, and Soroush's presentations on the subject are popular.
''We came here to get some clue on what should be done in the next weeks during the run-up to the election,'' said Hassan Alami, a law student. ''Instead, Dr. Soroush delivered a speech on the virtue of silence.'' Ali Mohebbi, a student of political science, noted: ''What he really means to say is that those who were talkative in Iranian politics have been good for nothing.''
The mood in the campuses of boycotting the elections has led to an exploration of a number of views. Among these is the methods of a regime that cracks down on students who take action against the government. Farid Moddaresi, a 22-year-old student of journalism who was jailed for 10 days following the 2003 student riots, explained, ''I am sure the hardliners are clever enough to relax some religious regulation and adopt reformist policies once they win a low-profile election.''
The alarmingly low turn-out for the town council elections of February 2003 - 10 to 15 percent - were an early indication that Iran's voters were experiencing a form of political fatigue and were suffering from despair at the status quo.
''The people are needed for voting day and are misused for the politicians' purposes,'' commented Taymor Qaragozlou, a law graduate. ''We do not want be manipulated any more - enough is enough.'' His girlfriend, Thamiyeh Hadavi, said that the majority of her classmates in the Allameh Tabatabaee university are unenthused by the February election. ''I think even a change of regime in Iran will not bring about any good and people like me have to work hard for their living,'' she said.
Still, the government is attempting to boost public confidence in the election, and is making an effort to introduce electronic vote counting in time for the polls. In the February 2000 parliamentary election, the results in some large constituencies were not announced for several months. The delay in announcing election results undermined public confidence in the process, and when the initial results were overturned in favour of conservative candidates, there were protests in Tehran. (END/2004)
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21842U.S. Ready to Talk to Iran on Nukes, Terror
Friday, January 09, 2004
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration declared its willingness Friday to talk with Iran on that nation's nuclear program, human rights record and support for violent opponents of peace between Israel and the Arabs.
Iran's acceptance of U.S. assistance after an earthquake "has opened some opportunities for dialogue with Iran," Secretary of State Colin Powell said.
In fact, there already have been contacts in which these issues have been discussed, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
There is no plan to widen the contacts, but U.S. policy is "to engage Iran on specific issues of concern in an appropriate manner if and when the president determines he wants to do so," the spokesman said.
Despite denouncing Iran two years ago as being part of an "axis of evil," President Bush authorized relaxing restrictions on delivery of equipment and money to Iran to help relief efforts after the disastrous Dec. 26 earthquake there. Iran turned down the offer, as well as a visit by a high-level American delegation, but on Thursday Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said, "Iran is ready to negotiate with all countries, and America is no exception."
Speaking on Iranian state television, Kharrazi also said that if the United States were to adopt "a new approach to Iran and is ready to interact with us based on mutual respect and the principle of equality, the atmosphere will change remarkably."
The United States and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since Iranian revolutionaries took over the U.S. Embassy in 1979, took U.S. diplomats hostage and held them for 444 days.
Iran has not shut the door to receiving the U.S. delegation later, and it welcomed a team of 83 U.S. aid workers.
Powell, in an interview with Abu Dhabi TV, said, "There are still serious political differences between the United States and Iran." But, he said, Iran's acceptance of earthquake assistance "showed that in a crisis like this we could cooperate, and maybe that will lead to other areas of cooperation."
At a news conference Thursday, Powell said Iran's response was not a "political breakthrough, but it was, nevertheless, a human breakthrough."
And so, Powell said, "We will see what happens in the future with respect to our relationship with Iran."
One test of whether there may be a diplomatic thaw is whether the State Department allows Iran's U.N. ambassador to travel to Washington next week for meetings with members of Congress.
Within the administration there has been a protracted debate between two views of Iran. One is that reformers are gaining strength and would like to respond to the Iranian people's yearning for democracy. The other view is that fundamentalist religious leaders still have the last word and have no intention to ease up on their stern policies or to seek better relations with the United States.
Iran's support for anti-Israel militants remains a big obstacle to a U.S. dialogue. On Friday, Boucher would neither verify nor deny reports that Syrian planes returned home from missions to transport earthquake relief supplies to Iran with munitions for Hezbollah (search), an Iranian-supported Lebanese group that has been fighting a cross-border war with Israel.
"I don't think I am in a position to talk about information that foreign intelligence services may or may not have," Boucher said.
He said Iran's support for groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, through Syria, remains a problem.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107953,00.html