TEHRAN, Iran — For the first time in two decades, liberal dissidents were on the ballots for Iran's local elections today after a power shift in the committee overseeing elections in this conservative society.
Nearly 225,000 candidates, including 6,000 women, were contesting the 185,000 village and city council seats. In past years, liberal dissidents were disqualified from running for office by hard-liners who controlled the parliamentary committee that supervises local elections.
This year, however, reformists who back the popularly elected President Mohammad Khatami control the Interior Ministry, which administers elections, as well as the parliamentary committee, allowing a wider pool of candidates.
Hard-line groups who support unelected conservative clerics effectively have boycotted the elections, though some low-level hard-liners are running as individuals.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word in all state matters, warned he would revoke the election of any candidate proven to have run against regulations, state-run Tehran television reported. "I have received reports that there have been deficiencies in verifying the qualifications (of candidates)," Khamenei said. "I'll look into the reports. If some people have been approved contrary to regulations, their election will be invalid."
But Khatami praised the elections after casting his vote in Tehran.
"Village and city council elections are the basis of democracy. People are involved in the decisionmaking from remote villages to the heart of the capital Tehran," Khatami said on television.
In Tehran, 1,351 hopefuls — including more than two dozen liberal dissidents — are competing for the 15-seat city council. An estimated 41 million Iranians older than 15 were eligible to vote at 58,000 polling booths nationwide.
The Interior Ministry extended voting by two hours because it said there was a large turnout. Ministry officials also said ballots would be counted by computers for the first time, with results expected by Monday.
During a week of campaigning, candidates swamped cities and villages with millions of banners and posters inviting people to vote. The campaign slogans were as diverse as the candidates competing for the four-year positions.
In Tehran, one candidate offered citizens a ride on his motorbike to attract votes.
"People's servant," read the sign on his back.
A reformist party at odds with other reformers promised to "save Tehran from domination of housing mafia." The recently ousted mayor of Tehran was accused of being responsible for a dramatic hike in housing prices and a plot to keep housing policies under his control.
He was sentenced in January to five months in jail and barred from public office for abusing his position and corruption.
Some candidates wore neckties, long regarded in Iran as "too western," and promised to protect freedoms. In several cities, female candidates asked pretty girls to carry copies of their photos in the streets to attract support from young voters.
Liberal dissidents, who have been accused by the hard-line judiciary of seeking to overthrow the Islamic establishment, hope to win public support to show that Iranians reject those charges.
Among those running were senior members of the outlawed Freedom Movement of Iran like Gholamabbas Tavassoli, Khosrow Mansourian and Aboulfazl Bazargan. The movement, led by dissident and former foreign minister Ebrahim Yazdi, was banned by a court last July.
"Hard-liners refused to run because they know they have no popular base and are doomed to fail. They can't tolerate more public humiliation at the polls," Yazdi said.
Housewife Elaheh Chaheh said she voted for the dissidents because she did not believe reformists could achieve change in conservative Iran. "I had no intention to vote but cast my ballot after liberal dissidents were allowed to run," she said.
Reformers say hard-line groups failed to compile a list of candidates because their public support is dwindling.
The elections come amid public frustration over the pro-reformist government's inability to deliver political, economic and social reforms because of its ongoing power struggle with ruling hard-line clerics.
Reformists blame the slow pace of reforms on hard-liners clinging to power through their control of unelected institutions such as the police and judiciary.