Iran Clerics Vow to Export Revolution as People Vote

Iran’s clerical leaders vowed Friday to continue exporting the Islamic Republic’s revolution as voters went to the polls in parliamentary elections that will determine the future of President Hashemi Rafsanjani’s moves toward better relations with the West.

As thousands filled the streets around Tehran University for Friday prayers before casting ballots, prayer leader Mohammed Kashani warned that Iran will show an “iron fist” to its enemies, and chanting crowds screamed, “Death to America!”

“O people of Khomeini,” shouted the hoarse prayer leader, referring to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, “your vote is a bullet in the heart of America! Smash the American mouth! Smash! Smash!”

Earlier in the day, casting his ballot in a prayer hall here in the capital, Ahmed Khomeini, son of Iran’s late supreme leader, called on candidates for the 270-seat Parliament to carry on his father’s call to spread Iran’s Islamic fundamentalist revolution to nations around the world.

“Those who want to go into the Parliament, they should try very seriously to do what he wanted: to export the revolution and give all the Muslims around the world this revolution,” Khomeini said. “This is one of the biggest duties of the Parliament. The world should know that each candidate who goes into the Parliament will adhere to what the imam said,” Khomeini said, using the Persian word for “prayer leader” often applied to his late father.

Rafsanjani, who has sought in the current round of elections to overcome the anti-Western radicals’ historic majority in Parliament, struck a more conciliatory tone and emphasized the need to proceed with his five-year plan designed to liberalize the economy and attract investments and technology from the West.

“We hope that this election will be a point of movement in the economic and political life of Iran,” he told reporters as he cast his own ballot Friday morning.

“This is the first election in which there is real competition,” he said on Iranian television later. “We had the presidential election, of course, but there there was no real competition. This is the first election without the imam. Now there are some serious issues being talked about, and the people must choose what they want from them.”

Iran’s 30 million eligible voters are choosing among more than 2,000 candidates, but the Rafsanjani-dominated Council of Guardians, a body of leading theologians, has eliminated many of the radical hard-liners who oppose the president’s policies.

During public prayers Friday, Kashani warned voters that they will “suffer in the eyes of God” if they fail to vote, but he also cautioned them about whom they vote for--presumably a plug for Rafsanjani’s slate of moderate candidates from Ruhaniyat, a political grouping that has not yet labeled itself a party.

“The Parliament is a place of the religious and the supporters of the government. If they want to come to the Parliament and oppose the government, the door of Parliament is closed to them,” Kashani said.

The official turnout was not reported. There were few lines at polling stations, and many Tehranians in the past week have appeared unenthusiastic about the balloting, convinced that Rafsanjani’s slate is destined to prevail--and that the country’s economic woes will be prolonged in any case.

“I’d rather vote for the butcher than any of these men,” declared a man selling old keys at Tehran’s historic bazaar.

“I think the situation will get worse, but it has nothing to do with the election,” said another bazaar merchant, who said he voted only because he feared the consequences if he didn’t. “Since (the current leaders) have come, they haven’t been doing anything but telling lies. Because we haven’t seen anything but lies, why should we think after these elections anything will change?”

Preliminary results are expected to trickle in over the weekend, but final results could be delayed until Tuesday or Wednesday, officials said. Many of the 270 seats will be decided in runoff elections before the May 28 seating of Parliament.