Iran held parliamentary elections yesterday amid concerns that low voters' turnout would undermine the authority of the polling results.

　　People came to ballot boxes installed in mosques, cemeteries, schools and other voting venues in the morning though reformers urged a mass boycott after the hard-line Guardian Council banned more than 2,400 candidates from standing for the elections.

　　The elections were supposed to be held from 8am to 6pm yesterday around the country with some 46 million legitimate voters, but officials said the voting could be extended until midnight.

　　A total of 4,737 qualified candidates are vying for the 290 seats of the seventh Majlis (parliament) since the 1979 Islamic Revolution which overthrew the shah in the country.

　　In Ershad mosque of northern Tehran, hundreds of voters, including teenager students and young women wearing black scarf, stood in lines waiting to cast their ballots.

　　"I came here to vote despite these boycott calls, because I have my own agenda," said Mortozari, a Tehran University student after casting his vote in the mosque.

　　Mortozari said he selected those who he knew for their past performance.

　　But the junior majoring in mathematics said that most of his classmates had decided not to vote.

　　Voters' turnout, which hit 67.2 percent in 2000, would drop dramatically this year as many people would shun the event after being disappointed by the recent political rift and the failure of reformists to carry out their earlier pledges.

　　Analysts predicted that without the mass participation of pro-reform voters, religious conservatives would easily win back control over the parliament.

　　People voting at Ershad mosque yesterday was apparently fewer than four years ago, when reformists won an overwhelming majority in the parliament with massive public support, witnesses said.

　　Meanwhile, President Mohammad Khatami, who once called the elections "unfair" due to the mass disqualification of reformists, cast his vote at No. 659 polling station at the Interior Ministry.

　　The solemnly-looking president quickly filled his ballot and put it into the ballot box before over 200 journalists, and then left the site without making any statement.

　　Earlier in the day, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voted in his Tehran complex shortly after the polling began, and called on the public to vote.

　　Khamenei accused "enemies" of the Islamic Republic of trying to encourage a boycott.

　　"Today is a particularly significant day, because the enemies are trying hard to stop the people from going to the ballot boxes," he said in a statement broadcast live by state radio.

　　"But the people are very wise. Nobody can stop the young people from voting, and I hope the outcome will be a good one," Khamenei said.

　　Information Minister Ali Yunesi, who appeared at the Interior Ministry ballot station shortly before Khatami, told reporters that the polling activities throughout the country had been as quiet as in previous elections.

　　Asked why only few voters turned out for the vote, the minister said he hoped there would be more voters turning out later in the day.

　　Preliminary election results would come out as early as today, but the final results are expected late next week.

　　The parliamentary elections have been overshadowed by a political infighting last month between reformists and the Guardian Council over the disqualification of thousands of reformist candidates.

　　After a long confrontation, the Guardian Council announced last Tuesday that 5,625 of the 8,144 registered candidate were qualified ones.

　　But 888 qualified candidates, including 12 incumbent lawmakers, decided to quit the race, leaving only 4,737 candidates for the elections.

　　Boycott backers used e-mail, Websites and a blitz of mobile phone text messages to urge voters to stay away. The main Website of the Islamic Participation Front, the main reformist group, appeared blocked by state-imposed filters.

　　Conservatives responded with the full power of state media: nonstop radio and television coverage with pro-vote comments.

　　Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, one of Iran's most influential reformers, said she would stay away because most of the well-known liberal candidates were banned. Speaking in Rome, she predicted a hard-liner victory "will not be rosy."

　　(Xinhua/AP)