Political Lines Blurred for Iran Vote

Besides being a moderate cleric who failed to win a seat in the last parliament, Moin was one of only two reformers finally allowed to run, and then only after the intercession of the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power.

His intercession may not have been entirely altruistic. A ballot featuring no credible reformers would have all but guaranteed a record-low voter turnout, which hard-line clerics have warned would be seen as undercutting government legitimacy.

But reformers are urging participation as well, banking that Iran's sullen, silent majority continues to favor their agenda -- if not even more fundamental change.

Pushed by student leaders and others, more and more activists are calling for overhauling the constitution to make more of Iran's leaders accountable to the people.

"Moin is a doctor," Mohsen Kadivar, a leading reformist cleric, told a rally of several thousand at Tehran University on Tuesday. "Khatami talked a lot and did what he could. But he didn't do any surgeries. He didn't remove any tumors from the state.

"We want to, after some time, change the constitution. That is the main demand of the reformist movement."

How that change would come about remains a mystery, given the intransigence of the ruling clerics. Some activists favor a deliberate election boycott and a new concentration on developing a united opposition outside the system. The aim is a mass movement that would eventually produce a "color revolution" modeled on those that toppled dictatorships in Georgia (Rose) and Ukraine (Orange).

"Our demand is fundamental and democratic change, and we actually want to form a new social and political movement that is very powerful," said Abdollah Momeni, a leader of a student group, the Office for Fostering Unity, the most prominent organization supporting a boycott.

By contrast, Rafsanjani built his campaign on the idea of working with what he has. Long described as a "pragmatic conservative," the tycoon has made management and business development cornerstones of his campaign.

Rafsanjani's aides acknowledge that with his long, checkered record and reputation for corruption, the front-runner carries considerable baggage. Support for him sometimes appears markedly thin, even among his campaign workers.

"Really, my ideals are elsewhere, but this is what's available," said Targol, a 16-year-old on Rafsanjani's staff who appears on a campaign photo card looking admiringly at him (and so asked that her last name not be published). "My parents don't like him very much."

She sat with a half-dozen other young women at one of Rafsanjani's youth headquarters, upscale complexes that stand out in Tehran as places where young people can just hang out. The young women sported the current look in Tehran: head scarves well back on the head and jean bottoms turned up six inches.

"Our country is actually falling apart, and we do not have time to try somebody else," Sammane Jahanbaksh said of her choice for president.

"We don't really need more than the freedom we have now," said Yassaman Yousefzadeh, 24. "We just need to make it stable."

Leila Ghadimi, 26, looked around the room and said: "I bet most of the people who are working here are not going to vote Friday. I don't know if that's right or wrong."

Moments later, when the group headed out to pass leaflets to motorists, a campaign organizer leaned toward a visiting reporter.

"Just wait," whispered Amir Hossein Shemshadi. "Four years. Everything will be cool. No more mullahs. Four years."