Khatami reforms focus of Iran poll

Khatami: size of his majority will determine speed of reforms

TEHRAN, Iran -- Voters in Iran are going to the polls in what is effectively a referendum on president Mohammad Khatami's reform plans.

Khatami, 58, the favourite to win, faces nine conservative and independent challengers in his attempt to seek a second term in office.

Polls opened at more than 45,000 voting stations from 9 a.m. (0430 GMT) on Friday to allow the 42 million eligible voters to cast their ballot.

But it is the size of Khatami's majority, if he wins, that pundits will be looking at.

An increase on his 1997 majority -- when he secured 70 percent of the vote -- would signal an endorsement of his reformist policies so far obstructed by the clerics who effectively rule the country.

Political analyst Mohammad Hadi Semati told the Associated Press: "It's all about power and where it comes from -- clerics or the people."

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A large turnout will help Khatami in achieving his aim, but officials are predicting 70 percent of eligible voters will cast their ballots, fewer than the 83 percent who voted four years ago in the election that swept Khatami to victory.

But a poll by the government-run Islamic Republic News Agency predicted a turnout of at least 83 percent, AP has reported.

Hundreds of thousands of votes were expected from Iranians living abroad, especially from the large Iranian community in the United States.

Helicopters were used to bring ballot boxes and election officials to some of the most remote villages.

Security was tight in the capital Tehran and other places with more than 120,000 policemen, troops and members of the elite Revolutionary Guards being deployed to keep watch, Reuters said.

Polls will close at 9 p.m. (1630 GMT) on Friday -- 2 hours later than planned after polling stations requested an extension.

Results are not expected until Sunday.

Khatami has said his first priority, if re-elected, will be economic reform and the creation of new jobs.

One million new jobseekers come into the Iranian labour market each year, with an estimated 70 percent of the population under the age of 30.

A mandate for Khatami will help give the presidency more power. The president's powers are currently superseded by Iran's supreme spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and religious hard-line clerics control judicial and military appointments.

Khatami, a mid-ranking Shi'ite cleric, has campaigned firmly on a platform of reform, calling it "the will of the people."

In the past two years, hardliners have closed dozens of outspoken newspapers and magazines and have jailed journalists and activists through courts they control.

Some of the president's leading ministers and officials have been impeached or jailed.

His opponents are mostly conservative former ministers, an academic, a lawyer, a doctor, and an admiral who have campaigned on the handling of the economy, viewed as a weak point for Khatami.

Among the key players are Ahmad Tavakoli, 50, a former labour minister. He was one of the harshest critics of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and ran against him in the 1993 presidential election.