Record number of  Iran presidential candidates

TEHRAN - With one month to go to a crucial presidential election in Iran, a record field of candidates has stepped forward to replace the outgoing moderate,Mohammed Khatami.

More than 1,000 people have thrown their hats into the ring, including a former national team goalkeeper and a multilingual vagrant.

The age range of candidates who registered by a midnight deadline on Saturday stretched from a 16-year-old boy to an 86-year-old cleric.

The Guardian Council, a religious constitutional watchdog that last year barred more than half the reformist candidates from running in parliamentary elections, is expected to whittle the field down to a dozen in the next 10 days.

The two frontrunners for the June 17 poll include the mercurial former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and the populist, hardline former police chief, Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf.

There were 89 women among the 1,010 people to step forward, but the Council has already said it will not allow them to run.

Potential women candidates unsuccessfully seized on an ambiguous clause in Iran's constitution defining who can run for office. It uses the Arabic phrase for "political men", which can also be interpreted as 'prominent figures'.

The race has attracted a selection of dissidents, former politicians, local or tribal leaders and eccentrics.

More outlandish possible candidates include revolution-era national goalkeeper Nasser Hejazi, who promised 'to show all ill-doers the red card' if he became president, and a vagrant who said his strong Arabic, English and French, backed up by degrees in management and astronomy, made him a suitable candidate.

Among the prominent dissidents to sign up was Ebrahim Yazdi, who was Iran's first foreign minister after the revolution and heads the broadly secular and democratic National Front.

Yazdi lives under the threat of a prison sentence on charges of acting against national security and trying to bring down the theocratic system. "

If I judge on the previous record of the Guardian Council, I don't believe there can be a free and fair election," Yazdi told The Independent.

"But I am doing my best to convince the authorities that they must change their behaviour and that is why I registered."

So far, the narrow favourite remains former president Rafsanjani, who is standing on a moderate ticket of improving relations with the West and continuing some reforms but at a slower pace. He is most likely to face only staunch conservatives in the election, although it is possible that the reformist candidate, Mostafa Moein, will be allowed to run.

The only new face among conservatives is Qalibaf, who earned popularity in Tehran for modernising and depoliticising the police force and for a series of eye-catching road safety initiatives.

His macho style is a breath of fresh air in a campaign dominated by the old guard. But Iranian analysts question his moderate image, recalling human rights abuses and press closures that took place under his command.

- INDEPENDENT