Promises ($60 for instance) Fail to Rouse Iran's Voters

[democratic]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/international/middleeast/24iran.html?pagewanted=all

TEHRAN, April 23 - With elections less than two months away, Iran's presidential hopefuls are scrambling to lure voters, promising everything from lowering the soaring prices of fruit and vegetables to normalizing relations with the country's longtime foe, the United States.

But much of the public is deeply apathetic. There is no real chance for a candidate who can spearhead the democratic changes once promised by the departing president, Mohammad Khatami, who proved unable to ward off the encroachment of the Guardian Council and its repressive agenda. Over the last eight years, the opposition has been marginalized as the judiciary has shut down more than 100 pro-change newspapers and journals and jailed dozens of advocates and intellectuals.

The student movement, a driving force behind the landslide election of President Khatami in 1997, has been so alienated by his failure to accomplish real change that its leaders say students will boycott the election unless they find a candidate who will support amending the Constitution.

"It is obvious that reform within the framework of the current Constitution is not possible," said Mehdi Aminzadeh, a member of the Office for Consolidating Unity, the top student movement. "It is time to call for a referendum on the Constitution."

Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, 50, who was among the Iranians who stormed the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979, is running on a mandate to improve relations with the United States. "I am the one who had the courage to lock the gate of the U.S. embassy and put the key in my pocket," he said in an interview. "Only I can return it and fix relations."

Mehdi Karoubi, the former speaker of Parliament, is running as a moderate and has promised, if elected, to give about $60 a month, to every Iranian over the age of 18.