Iran: Khatami rapped over elections

The students urged voters to shun Friday’s vote, for which more than 2, 500candidates have been barred by an unelected hardline watchdog, and said turnout would be a "symbolic referendum" on the Islamic state’s clerical establishment.

The statement from the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU) student organisation was a further blow to Khatami, whose 1997 and2001 election wins were backed by millions of young Iranians excited by his reformist message.

But the mid-ranking cleric’s inability to break resistance from religious hardliners to his calls for greater social and personal freedoms has seen his popularity plunge, particularly among the two Iranians in three who are aged under30 .

"By accepting to hold the elections… Khatami has proved that he prioritises the demands of senior officials and religious decrees at the price of sacrificing justice, freedom and people’s rights," the OCU said in its statement.

Meanwhile, reformists acknowledged they faced defeat in the election.

The disqualification of candidates has split reformists into two camps – those who refuse to take part in the vote and those who say it is important to try to keep even a small presence in parliament.

Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, spokesman for the Coalition for Iran – a group of eight pro-reform parties which is the main reformist bloc contesting the election – said reformists would "only form a minority" in the next assembly.

The Interior Ministry said that 607 out of some5 , 600candidates approved to run have withdrawn from the race.

Conservatives say those banned were unfit for office and accuse them of trying to turn Iran, which is marking the25 th anniversary of its Islamic revolution, into a secular state.