The Vote In Iran

By Scott Macleod/Tehran

Reza Khatami, the brother of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is in the back of a silver Oldsmobile racing toward the next campaign stop. Fighting Tehran's afternoon rush hour, his driver maneuvers between the lanes and cuts off other cars while en route from a student rally to address older voters in a mosque out of town. Unfazed by the commotion, the candidate concentrates on explaining why he is running for a seat in Iran's Majlis-e-Shura, or national assembly. "We want to see democracy take firmer root and blossom," he says. "If the reformers win, we will create an environment where it can flourish." As the driver does a crazy U-turn, Khatami flashes a wide grin.

Ever since reformist President Mohammed Khatami's upset election with a nearly 70% vote three years ago, Iran has been on a pretty wild ride. It may be about to get a bit wilder if the little brother gets his way. Reza, 40, 16 years younger than the President, is leading the reform ticket in this week's elections, and by most accounts the reformers are set to take control of the assembly from Islamic conservatives.

Like millions of other Iranians, especially young people and women, the President will relish such a result. With his reforms blocked by hard-liners who have stalled reform legislation, shut down newspapers and even jailed the President's allies, he has been losing popularity. Students impatient for more freedom and an end to Islamic codes governing what they wear and how they socialize have dubbed his program "Not Now, Later," and likened him to a henpecked husband afraid to stand up to his wife. "Finally," Reza Khatami told TIME, "all our hopes and goals will be realized."

Not since the first balloting after Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's revolution have Iranians seen such a freewheeling election--a credit to the progress Khatami has managed to achieve. More than 6,000 candidates are vying for places in the 290-seat Majlis. In the 30-seat Tehran region, Reza Khatami is competing against an astonishing 869 rivals. Many Iranians had expected the Council of Guardians, which screens candidates and is controlled by hard-line mullahs, to manipulate the outcome ahead of time by keeping reform-minded candidates off the ballot. But the secretive council surprised everyone and waved most reform hopefuls onto the ballot. Why? Some believe Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, Khomeini's successor as Supreme Leader, feared a repeat of last summer's days of rage, when young Iranians throughout the country rioted after a pro-reform newspaper was shut down.

Once certified, the candidates criss-crossed voting districts, addressing students, factory workers, mosquegoers. Helicopters leafleted spectators at a parade marking the revolution's 21st anniversary. Though the President must stand above party politics, his brother was free to work hard in the trenches, forming a reformist party called the Participation Front. "What we are seeing is less ideology and more politics," says Hadi Semati, a Tehran University professor. "The republican part of the Islamic Republic is getting stronger."

Two weeks ago, Iranians held their breath when a mortar blast killed one person and injured five others near the President's office. The attack turned out to be the work of an exiled leftist group rather than religious thugs who have frequently unleashed violence on the President's supporters. A prominent ayatullah provided a moment of comic relief by making the farfetched claim that an ex-CIA director had arrived in Tehran with suitcases full of cash for reformers. The laughter was short-lived: hard-liners jailed a cartoonist for lampooning the conspiracy-minded ayatullah.

This being Iran, a victory for the reformers may not be precisely what it seems: the unknown factor is former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Desperate for a big name to head their slate, the hard-liners turned to Rafsanjani, despite the fact that his party, Servants of Construction, was already part of the pro-Khatami coalition. Rafsanjani leaped at the chance, hoping to win an easy Majlis seat and stage a political comeback, possibly as speaker, a post he held from 1980 to '89. While the President and Rafsanjani agree on issues like opening up to the West and economic reform, Rafsanjani is resistant to loosening other restrictions. That conflict could jeopardize the President's proposals to lift curbs on press freedom, institutionalize free elections and generally deepen Iran's rule of law. Still, the President may believe, as do some analysts, that Rafsanjani could help prevent a backlash among demoralized hard-liners. Explains Tehran University professor Nasser Hadian: "The pace of reform might be slower, but Rafsanjani can convince the conservatives that there is something in democracy for them."

What is certain is that Iran's Sixth Majlis will have more reform faces like Reza Khatami's. The candidate candidly admits that the revolution made some mistakes. He advocates free speech, even if it challenges clerical rule, and expresses little fear of globalization. "One response to globalization is to limit new technologies without really understanding them," he says. "Another is to learn about them and interact with them. We want to interact." The Great Satan? When an American reporter asks to accompany him on his campaign trip, it takes Khatami 10 seconds to smile and say, "Sure, come along." The look is different too: in contrast with the drab gowns worn by the mullahs in the Majlis, Khatami, with his Italian jacket, dark turtleneck and trim gray beard, would look at home in an Armani ad.

If Iran is to negotiate the treacherous road from theocracy to democracy, reformers must find a way to speak to the Internet generation as well as to older Iranians. That realization is what had Reza Khatami dashing along Tehran's clogged streets to meet the voters. At Tehran's Shariati Cultural Center, singing and clapping students cheered when he declared, "With the support of the youth, we shall all build the future of this country!" An hour's drive away at the mosque in Shahr-ray, he addressed a subdued throng of working-class men, reassuring them that the reform movement is inspired by Ayatullah Khomeini. Inside the mosque, neighborhood elders nodded with approval as Khatami dropped to his knees, knelt in the direction of Mecca and prayed. Even before he was back on his feet, though, the President's brother was tapping out a number on his cell phone.

--With reporting by Azadeh Moaveni/Tehran

With reporting by Azadeh Moaveni/Tehran