Iran reformist seeks big turnout in parliament race

By Samia Nakhoul and Zahra Hosseinian

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A top pro-reform cleric said Iranians should vote in the March parliament election because a high turnout would give the opposition a bigger voice even if many reformists were barred from running in the polls.

Mehdi Karoubi told Reuters reformists had learnt from past experience that staying away from the ballot pushed them to the sidelines of politics and decision-making in Iran, where key levers of power and parliament are now held by conservatives.

The vote for the next parliament, now dominated by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's backers, will test the popularity of the president, who came to power vowing to share out oil wealth more fairly but who critics blame for double-digit inflation.

But those seeking to run have to go through a vetting process by government executive committees and the hard-line Guardian Council supervisory body, blamed for disqualifying many pro-reform candidates in the 2004 parliamentary election.

Pro-reform politicians say many of their number have already been banned this time, although they await final figures.

"We have heard that many people have been disqualified," Karoubi, a mid-ranking cleric and former speaker of parliament, said in his north Tehran office late on Tuesday.

"First, we will object and try to get people to be qualified again. We are also asking people to take part in the election because then (the situation) would not get worse. The majority of people are responding."

"It is not like four years ago when extremist reformists asked people not to take part in the election," he said, adding that those who stayed away now "regretted" their decision.