From: clarinews@clarinet.com
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.election,clari.news.politics,clari.news.politics.people,biz.clarinet.sample
Subject: Hard-line clerics appear headed for defeat in Iran
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, election, politics,
	political parties, political personalities
Date: 12 Apr 92 16:54:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: clarinet.iran-electionsU2AC1250pe
Followup-To: biz.clarinet.sample
Location: iran
ACategory: international
Slugword: iran-elections
Priority: regular
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 501; Id: z3165; Sel: xxigf; Adate: 4-12-1250ped
Codes: yigfrxx., yiperip., yipprip., yiprrip.


	_B_y_ _R_A_L_P_H_ _J_O_S_E_P_H
	ATHENS, Greece (UPI) -- Vote-counting after Iran's general election
continued Sunday and indications emerged that hard-line clerical rivals
of President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani were faring poorly in the large
Tehran constituency.
	The official Islamic Republic News Agency said early returns in
Tehran showed that three top-ranking hard-liners may not make it to the
270-seat Majlis, or Parliament, following Friday's elections.
	Majlis Speaker Mehdi Karubi was running 36th in the list of some 200
candidates who contested the 30 seats in the Tehran constituency, the
news agency said. Behind him came hard-liner Hojatoleslam Mohammed
Khoeyniha in 37th place.
	Khoeyniha, who publishes the Tehran newspaper Salam, which is
strongly critical of the president, was the clerical mentor of the
radicals who seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979.
	Still further down the list was former Interior Minister Ali Akbar
Mohtashami, who heads the hard-line group of clerics opposing the
pragmatist president. Mohtashami trailed in 40th place in the Tehran
constituency, an IRNA report monitored in Athens said.
	Controversy meanwhile continued on Friday's turnout. IRNA said more
than 13 million votes were counted by Saturday, but Massoud Rajavi, who
heads the Baghdad-based Mojahedin Khalq, said no more than 4.5 million
turned out to vote.
	Rajavi said the poor turnout, representing only 15 percent of the
registered voters in Iran, showed how much support the ruling clerics
had lost in the country
	Commenting on reports in the official media that more than 13 million
people voted, a Mojahedin spokesman said, ``It's not hard for them to
produce figures like that. They don't even have to stuff the ballot
boxes'' with falsified votes.
	Tehran radio did not say how many deputies were declared elected, but
added that runoff elections were due to be held in at least 66
constituencies because no candidates received the necessary minimum
number of votes needed to make it to the legislature.
	No political parties are currently permitted in Iran, making early
analysis of the results difficult, but the polls were seen to be a
contest between Rafsanjani and his hard-line rivals, whose supporters
dominated the outgoing Parliament.
	Rafsanjani reportedly made pre-election efforts to boost the number
of his supporters in the new Majlis to enable him to introduce free-
market reforms and policies that will open Iran up to the West.
	In the absence of political parties, groups of clerics, some of whom
supported Rafsanjani while others opposed him, published pre-election
lists of their preferred candidates and asked people to vote for them.
	IRNA said early results in Tehran indicated that the Society of
Combatant Clergymen, which has supported Rafsanjani in the past,
appeared headed for a landslide victory in the capital, where it may
capture 29 of the 30 seats available.
Xref: sparky clari.news.politics:497 biz.clarinet.sample:1121