Across the country 80 percent of those eligible to vote participated in the elections for the 290-member Majles, the sixth since the 1979 revolution. Over all, 221 delegates were elected. The remaining seats will be filled in run-off elections in April. The 3 million people who voted in Tehran elected 30 delegates allotted to the capital city, all in the first round.

The current Majles in its majority is composed of deputies who are part of what is commonly called the "right faction" in the government. This conservative faction has been instrumental in banning opposition newspapers, jailing its political opponents within the regime, and promoting legislation reinforcing limitations on democratic rights. Prior to the elections, the Majles voted to raise the voting age requirement from 15 to 16 years. This was generally viewed in the country as a factional move to prevent 15-year-olds, amounting to a million and half young people, from voting for opposition candidates.

But the mass outpouring of the population--especially youth and women, with people waiting in long lines to vote--more than made up for this loss. Among the overwhelmingly youthful campaigners for the candidates, women stood out distributing campaign literature in the schools and streets. By law they had only a week to campaign, and they made the most of it.  
 

Protest against conservative faction

A major element in the elections was a massive protest vote cast against the conservative faction. The highest number of votes in Tehran, 1.8 million, went to Mohammadreza Khatami, a younger brother of President Mohammad Khatami who until recently had been relatively unknown. President Khatami was elected as president three years ago in a landslide victory against a favored leader of the conservative faction, Ayatollah Nateq Nouri, the speaker of the house in the current Majles.

Many people view the conservatives as putting road blocks in the way of Khatami's progressive direction. The vote for his brother is viewed as a proxy vote in support of him. Votes for some of the other candidates had a similar character.

The next three candidates who received the highest votes were Jamileh Kadivar, Alireza Nouri, and Hadi Khamenei who were also relatively unknown. Their high votes caught everybody by surprise. Jamileh Kadivar's brother, Mohsen Kadivar, is a well known Islamic cleric. He was imprisoned for what is generally thought to have been expressing dissenting views. Alireza Nouri is the brother of Abdollah Nouri, an Islamic cleric and former editor of the Tehran daily Khordad.

He previously held high-ranking positions in the government. Abdollah Nouri was accused of blasphemy. He was given a five-year jail term last November and his paper banned after a highly publicized trial broadcast on national radio and TV where he defended his ideas.

The fourth highest vote went to Hadi Khamenei, an Islamic cleric and a brother of the Islamic head of state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Because of his views favoring tolerance and political openness, he was attacked last year by zealots and beaten up. The vote for him reflected an aspect of solidarity and abhorrence of thuggery in politics.

Of the 30 candidates in Tehran, only one nominated by the conservative faction was elected. Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, while not associated with the conservative faction, nevertheless almost lost the election, one of the reasons being that he was nominated by the conservatives. To everyone's surprise he ended up having the lowest number of votes among the 30 elected candidates, barely scraping by.

The degree of shake-up can be seen by the fact that 230 out of 290 deputies in the current Majles will not be sitting in the new one. Mohammad Reza Bahonar, a leader of the conservative faction in the current Majles, told reporters, "The results are not as we thought in Tehran."

The political opposition to conservatives coalesced around what has come to be known as the 2nd of Khordad movement. This is a broad liberal bourgeois movement that looks to President Khatami to one degree or another for leadership. Central themes of Khatami's campaign include expansion of political liberties, special attention to the needs of the youth, and privatization of major industries.

A leaflet put out by Jebheye Mosharekat (Participatory Front), which is viewed as Khatami's party, calls for legislation to guarantee security of capital and private ownership. Along these lines, last week's papers here carried in their headlines the news that a private bank was opened here for the first time since the revolution.  
 

Dismantling 'parallel institutions'

The dismantling of the so called "parallel institutions" was also a central demand of 2nd of Khordad, as well as most of the independent candidates.

These institutions came out of the 1979 revolution when the old state structures cracked under the revolutionary assault of the masses. For example, there are two military structures: the pro-imperialist army built by the shah of Iran, which shattered during the revolution; and a new army built outside of and coexisting with the defeated imperial army.

Other parallel institutions include two ministries of agriculture. One ministry is inherited from the old regime, the other arose with the awakening of the peasants during the revolution. They were joined by thousands of youth from cities who went to the villages and worked with the peasants to raise productivity on the land and to introduce literacy and education. All attempts in the last 20 years to dismantle "parallel institutions" and unify their functions has proved to be futile.

This was an election marked by the candidacy of all the bourgeois currents of Iran, including pro-bazaar (mercantile) wing of Ayatollah Nateqe Nouri, who was the speaker of the fifth Majles; Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi; Raf-sanjani's Kargozaran (Functionalists) Party; and President Khatami's Mosharekat Front.

Many of the prominent spokesmen of these parties, with the exception of the conservatives, were ruled off the ballot by the Council of Guardians, an elected body of mainly high-ranking Islamic clerics who have the final say on many matters of state. The Council of Guardians has pretty much carried out policies of the conservative faction.

The 2nd of Khordad movement is not politically homogeneous. For example, Mojahedin Enghelabe Eslami is known to be for more government control over the economy, while Khatami's faction favors more privatization. In fact, the Tehran daily Keyhan, which is more inclined toward the conservatives, has been running numerous articles on a possible split in this front. Mojahedine Enghelabe Eslami has been putting out statements warning of a potential coup being organized against the reform movement.

Khaneh Kargar also fielded candidates. This organization has been in existence for two decades and is closely connected with the newly formed reformist Islamic Labor party.

Its national secretary, Abolghsem Sarhaddi Zadeh, was reelected to the sixth Majles from Tehran. He was endorsed by almost all 2nd of Khordad formations, with the notable exception of Rafsanjani's Kargozaran party. On the other hand, Soheila Jelodarzadeh, who was elected as a "Workers' candidate" to the fifth Islamic parliament, used her platform to support Mr. Rafsanjani's candidacy.

The Workers' House had their own slate, topped by the name of Hashemi Rafsanjani and Hasan Rohani, vice-chair of the current Majles who is associated with the conservative wing. Soheyla Jelodarzadeh was quoted by the Tehran daily Karo Kargar (Labor and Laborer) in January saying, "The workers community has special gratitude towards Hashemi Rafsanjani because we received his support when he was the president." Jelodarzadeh was speaking for the Islamic Labor party. In the same article she said, "We can not reach economical stability unless the capital receives its fair share."

A large number of independent candidates ran in the elections. They included quite a few army officers, civil servants, and faculty members of educational institutions. It appears some 50 independent candidates were elected, creating a mild dispute among the contending factions who seek to claim some of the "independents" as their own.

It is evident that Khatami's Mosharekat party has recruited a large number of youth during this election. One student who this correspondent spoke with said that he had walked for hours in the Tehran streets two days before election day, and had seen hundreds of youth passing out electoral leaflets, which he said were mostly in support of Khatami's reform movement.

Another current that actively participated in the election was the main student organization, Daftar Tahkim Vahdat (DTV--Center to Strengthen Unity). They worked as part of the 2nd of Khordad movement and the Khaneh Kargar. In support of the reform movement, DTV put out a leaflet with a headline, "The dawn is near." This student group takes its continuity from the students who took over the U.S. embassy in 1979 to protest Washington's moves to interfere in Iran's internal affairs and to reinstall the deposed shah to the throne.

The U.S. government did exactly that in 1953 through a military coup organized from the U.S. embassy in Tehran by the CIA. Many of those students fought as volunteers in the 1980–88 Iran-Iraq war to repel a pro-imperialist-backed attack by Iraq's capitalist government against Iran's revolution. This group also led protest actions after thugs and police attacked a student dormitory at the University of Tehran last spring. Since then, most other student groups have evaporated, but DTV is widening its influence among students.  
 

Downplaying religious themes

An eye-catching feature of this election was the downplaying of religious themes in election literature and the widespread use of nationalistic slogans. Most leaflets had the Iranian flag painted on them. Big banners of Jebhe Mosharekat were put on the streets with a headline saying, "Iran, for all Iranians."

Most army officers running as candidates called for the restoration of "law and order." Reza Zarrin Ghaba, an active army pilot, called for "freedom in thought, logic in talk, and law in the field of action." A retired army officer, Mohsen Zainali, who was running as an independent candidate, put out an electoral statement that was widely distributed in the demonstration held on the anniversary of the 1979 revolution. His statement was about how to solve the widespread unemployment in Iran. His solution: "Throw out all Foreign Workers!"

Many people in the demonstration dismissed this right-wing statement with laughter. But it reflects the fact that Iran like any other capitalist country under the present world crisis is not immune to developing right-wing currents.

Most people are very happy about the election results. What they enjoy the most is that they have found a way to express their opinions without fearing victimization. They cast a protest vote without any worries about becoming known and identified as some one opposing the ruling view. The joy of voting and getting results permeates the air for now.  
 

'The lesser evil'

According to official reports, about 10 million eligible voters did not participate in the elections. No report has been put out about the composition of the nonvoters. Two workers told this correspondent that they would not vote because those who win will not represent their interests. They were not very far off if we consider what was just voted upon in the current Majles.

According to a report in Keyhan, a new law exempts workshops that employ less than five people from abiding by the Labor Law for the next six years. This law provides some job security and other benefits. Not all young people were enthused with the candidates either. On the eve of elections two students who are supporters of Daftar Tahkime Vahdat said they will vote for reform candidates only because "they are a lesser evil."

Unemployment is officially at 20 percent, but it is much higher for the 70 percent of the population who are under 30. The rate of inflation is 20.4 percent over the last 10 months. Under these conditions, eyes are now on Khatami and the coming Majles to deliver on rising expectations.

The imperialists have assessed the outcome of the elections as a step by the Iranian masses away from the revolution and towards U.S. imperialism. This is a very big lie. Because for the Iranian masses the U.S. government is remembered as the architect of the 1953 military coup that resulted in 25 years of tyranny, exploitation, and plunder; a tyranny that broke every independent pen and jailed every independent voice.

This memory is still too fresh to be conned with such illusions. The U.S. Congress still votes to allocate funds to destabilize Iran. Mass participation in these elections, registering their will, was in itself an anti-imperialist action of people resolved to fight for their sovereignty.  
 
 
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