Iran students rip plans for 'sham' elections

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's largest student movement denounced the nation's reformist president Sunday for relenting to hard-line demands and scheduling legislative elections even though he said they will be unfair.

Students from The Office for Fostering Unity called on Iranians to boycott Friday's elections, from which about 2,400 reformist candidates were barred from running by hard-line clerics.

"Through accepting to hold this sham election . . . (President Mohammad) Khatami effectively gives priority to implementing illegal demands of unelected conservatives at the cost of slaughtering justice, freedom and people's rights," the student group said in a statement.

Liberal lawmakers and academics have dubbed the elections a sham, reformist parties have boycotted the polls and hundreds of approved candidates withdrew their names in protest after the hard-line Guardian Council initially banned more than 3,600 reformist candidates.

A reluctant Khatami gave in to an order from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to hold the vote but said it would be unfair and would give little motivation for people to participate.

Without the reformist candidates, hard-liners are expected to retake control of the 290-seat Majlis, or parliament.

"Dialogue to reform the establishment in the way Khatami has defined has reached a dead end," the students' statement said.

"The absolute power of appointed institutions and their resistance against the voted reform movement has revealed the inefficiency of reforms under the existing structure of the establishment."

Meanwhile, prominent jailed reformer Hashem Aghajari called on the nation to send a message to the ruling establishment by boycotting the polls.

"The sham election is the end of reforms within the establishment. The Iranian nation has learned now that there is no hope of a democratic change under the ruling system," Aghajari wrote in a letter from Evin prison, where he is serving a four-year term for questioning clerical rule.

The letter was made available to The Associated Press by Aghajari's wife, Zahra Behnoodi.

Aghajari said the solution to the deadlock was "referendum, amending the constitution and bringing fundamental changes in the ruling system."

Iran's biggest political crisis in years was triggered when clerics on the Guardian Council -- an unelected hard-line body that vets candidates -- last month banned the candidates, nearly all of them supporters of efforts to expand Western-style democracy and loosen strict interpretations of Islamic codes in areas such as social activities and the media.

About 130 members of parliament resigned in protest and almost all reformist parties, including the largest -- the Islamic Iran Participation Front, announced a boycott of the elections.

The council, whose members are selected by Khamenei, reinstated about 1,200 candidates in stages after sit-ins and protests by liberal politicians and backers. The rest remained blackballed -- all leading reformists, including 80 sitting lawmakers.

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