Iranian hard-liners unlikely to beat reformist Khatami

Iranian hard-liners hold out little prospect of unseating reformist President Mohammad Khatami in next week’s election, and instead seem to have opted instead for a strategy of at best slowing him down.

But Khatami needs more than a simple victory on June 8.

He needs an overwhelming show of support to revitalise his programme of democratic change, which hard-liners have stymied with a campaign of arrests and closures of pro-reform newspapers.

The President, a moderate cleric who came to power in a 1997 landslide election, has come under criticism from some liberals pressing him to confront conservatives more strongly.

Hard-liners have fielded nine conservative candidates for next week’s vote, none of whom is considered capable of defeating him.

The lacklustre field is generating apathy that could diminish any Khatami win.