The Hindu : International : Presidential campaigns target youth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 17, 2005

International

International

Presidential campaigns target youth

Atul Aneja

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani frontrunner in Friday's Iranian elections

TEHERAN: Campaigning for Iran's Presidential election has ended but the sidewalks leading to the sprawling Teheran University campus are still packed with young people who are well aware that their votes will decide as to which of the top three candidates will win Friday's poll.

Out of Iran's 48-million voting population, 30 million have not witnessed the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Under Iranian law, all citizens above the age of 15 can vote.

That has meant that all of the candidates — from hardliners, conservatives to liberals — have had to aggressively woo the young. That the votes of the new generation matter has become apparent in the manner in which candidates have executed their campaigns, either on television or on the streets. For instance, a television advertisement for the recently-resigned police chief Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, a leading candidate, showcases him as a dashing former airlines pilot. Against the backdrop of the rising sun and a catchy musical score, Mr. Qalibaf is shown carrying out the take-off of an Iran Airlines plane. The white plane is then shown soaring into the blue sky as the music reaches its crescendo.

Tight race

An entire wall outside the university campus bears his poster, showing him dressed in a trendy outfit and smiling appealingly at the street below. Among Iran's three top candidates who are running a tight race, Mr. Qalibaf, however, is not the frontrunner. That title goes to Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has been Iran's President twice before. He is projecting himself as a moderniser — a man who wants to take Iran forward, so long as the country does not forget its Islamic revolutionary roots.

He has carried out an aggressive campaign, where young boys and girls have been specially recruited to canvass for him. Mr. Rafsanjani's campaign managers have fanned out, and his election offices have mushroomed all over the city. In some of these offices compact discs recording his interview with about 20 young people, which was aired on Iran's state television, could be seen being packed for last-minute distribution. In that interview, the cleric answered question from young men and women about his views on freedom, relations between the sexes, employment, love and death.

Reformist candidate Mostafa Moin has also led a forceful campaign targeting the youth. A television commercial for Mr. Moin shows Saeed Hajjarian, known as a pioneering reformist before he was shot and paralysed by a hardliner group in March 2000. Awareness among candidates that people had become wary of elections partly explains the extra effort that they have put up in the campaign.

But despite their exertions many may not come to vote. "The real power is not with the President but, is, instead, held by a body of unelected clerics. So there is no point in voting," Cina Foroutan, a student at the Teheran University told The Hindu.

A group of young women also expressed similar views, but said they would reluctantly go to vote.

"We are not exactly for Western style freedoms for women, but we demand real equality and right to exercise opportunities," Elnaz Salimi, a medical student said. Seyed Shahab Aleddin, who is pursing a master's degree in chemistry, pointed out that disillusionment among the youth has set in because reformist President Mohammad Khatami, despite being elected twice, could not meet the aspirations of the youth.

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