CNN: CNN Tonight

Martin Savidge, Walter Rodgers, Christiane Amanpour 06/09/2001

Iranian President Wins Re-election in an Unprecedented Landslide

Voters in Iran turned out in massive numbers for Friday's presidential election. And four years after delivering a landslide upset victory to a political unknown, they have re-elected him by an even greater margin. The final results are not yet in, but early numbers suggest that President Mohammad Khatami has more than 77 percent of the vote

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Voters in Iran turned out in massive numbers for Friday's presidential election. And four years after delivering a landslide upset victory to a political unknown, they have re-elected him by an even greater margin. The final results are not yet in, but early numbers suggest that President Mohammad Khatami has more than 77 percent of the vote. The victory marks the second straight electoral loss for Khatami's hard-line opponents, and gives him new support to promote his reform-minded agenda.

CNN's Walter Rodgers has more on Khatami's victory, and what it says about Iran, and the people who live there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iranians waited a full day for news of president Khatami's landslide victory. This woman is saying: "If it's true, it's great. At the very least, he listened to young people. I am extremely happy," she said, adding: "A lot of others feel the same way." "Wherever we went, it was Khatami, Khatami, Khatami. No one else was mentioned." Iranian President Mohammad Khatami won an overwhelming mandate, bigger than four years ago, in some provinces capturing over 90 percent of the vote. No one else came close. Casting his ballot Friday, Iran's supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei seemed to anticipate a victory by reformers, but he signaled there is one thing this election will not change.

AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, SUPREME SPIRITUAL LEADER (through translator): Every ballot in the box is a vote for an Islamic system of government here.

RODGERS: Still, a large voter turnout seemed a resounding public demand for greater freedoms here. Three times poll closings were postponed to accommodate voters. The size of the Khatami's victory is being interpreted as a stunning rebuke of the conservative Islamic clergy, which has until now wielded power here.

SAYED JALAL SADATIAN, POLITICAL ANALYST: They should be frightened. RODGERS (on camera): If you were an Iranian conservative, why would you be worried now?

SADATIAN: Because we live with -- we are losing the power.

RODGERS (voice-over): This election was not the rejection of the idea of an Islamic Republic. President Khatami himself is a Muslim cleric. (on camera): What has changed now is the Iranian people have voted against being told what to do. They voted against being led around by the conservative clergy. Overwhelmingly, they made it clear they want their voices heard in an Islamic democracy.

(voice-over): "The freedom I want now is freedom of speech and freedom of thought, which unfortunately does not exist yet," this young man said. "I want women to be considered part of this society, to work alongside of men," she said.

Four years ago, these Iranians also voted for Khatami and reform, but the conservative Islamic clerics frustrated efforts to modernize Iran. Some voters still fear conservative clerics may again try to nullify votes and block reforms. That raised a frightful specter for some.

"If reforms don't happen, if there is no reform, there will be nothing but ruin," she said. Blocking economic reform remains the Islamic conservatives' best hope for undermining Khatami now.

SABATIAN: They hope the economy's problem will stop Mr. Khatami, and try in the first period to put a pressure on Khatami and try to make obstacles in the way.

RODGERS: Many Iranians live in poverty. The economy is fragile despite oil revenues, and public patience is short. "There is no end to unemployment," this man said, adding: "Those in charge know damned well how bad it is." Iranians seem willing to give President Khatami another chance. His victory speaks loudly to public demands for change. One thing is certain, President Khatami knows this is his last chance. He cannot run again, and no one can sure if another charismatic reformer will succeed him. Walter Rodgers, CNN, Tehran. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Khatami's reformists now control the presidency, the parliament, and many local legislatures. But constitutionally, the hard-line religious establishment holds almost all the real power. The hard-liners have derailed much of Khatami's reform agenda, and when the president registered his candidacy, observers say that he wept over his inability to accomplish major changes.

For more insight into President Khatami's re-election win, and its potential impact on Iranian society, CNN's Christiane Amanpour spoke with Siamak Namazi. He is the political analyst and editor for the publication "Iran Focus."

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Apparently, already his conservative rival and others are questioning the votes, citing irregularities. Do you get the impression that they are going to try to undermine this electoral vote?

SIAMAK NAMAZI, EDITOR, "IRAN FOCUS": Well, let's start with your first point. It is absolutely unprecedented. Mr. Khatami has defied historic trend by becoming the first president of the Islamic Republican whose votes, numbers of votes is seemingly going to be higher than the last time. Greater Tehran votes are still not complete, so he can well beat his 20 million votes. Percentage-wise, it's higher, and that's exactly the reason an analyst like myself, who counted on historical trends, have lost a lot of bets right now, being wrong on the numbers.

AMANPOUR: In the last few minutes, as you have been talking, Iranian state television has announced that president Khatami has been re-elected. What does he do now with this clear mandate?

NAMAZI: Well, he ran a very sober campaign, which becomes -- the numbers that he's achieved becomes more surprising. He made no false promises. In fact, he promised very little. He just said that his aim is to achieve an Islamic democracy, and the ways and means of that is moderation and tolerance. He told the Iranian people that he cannot always be transparent and reveal all, for it would endanger national security, but he said that when he does talk, he promises for it to be truthful. In fact, he did not even make very sober promises that he could have kept, in order to get high votes. He didn't, for example, say that he is going to put more local officials in provincial governments or any sort.

He tried to create an image, he said that the reform movement is going to continue, he promised to keep up with the battle. He promised to be truthful to the Iranian people, not to quit on them, not to lie to them, but he also said not to have false expectations.

He is not champion. He is not a hero. He is not the knight on the white horse. And so, I think the electorate today voting overwhelmingly for Mr. Khatami has very sober expectations of the next four years. We know that the reform movement is going to have its ebbs and flows, but we hope that it is going to move forward, as Mr. Khatami has done in the past four years. I mean, you mentioned earlier on about 40 newspapers being shut over the past two years, which is absolutely correct, and it's often pointed to by Western analysts, but you fail to mention that today in Iran, we have more newspapers than we had four years ago. So if we compare our expectations -- the expectations we had of the reform movement and of Mr. Khatami to the day four years ago today when he was elected, I think he has met the expectations. If we compare it to two years ago, and when after -- especially a year ago after the parliamentary elections where people's expectations ran wild, yes, he has lagged. But I would say that the high voter turnout signifies that the Iranian voters are not fair weather fans, and they will stick by their president and the reform movement.

AMANPOUR: Certainly it appears they will stick by the president. It appears he is the only game in town right now. But it appears also that he is lowering expectations, and he has asked the people in his last campaign address to be patient, to be tolerant, to have moderation.

How does that go down with people who are constantly telling anybody who asks that what they want are the freedoms and social reforms that have been promised within the Islamic system but still have not been delivered?

NAMAZI: Well, I would agree with you if there wasn't such a high voter turnout. I mean, a high percentage could be justified by the fact that the other nine candidates -- as they are unkindly called by the Western press as the nine dwarves -- don't match up to Mr. Khatami's caliber. But we have had a very high voter turnout, which is saying that the Iranian people are going to support Mr. Khatami, while he made it abundantly clear during his campaign not to expect miracles from him, and to realize that, as he says, reform is going to have a price.

AMANPOUR: So what happens now? What do the conservative do? What is their strategy? I remember this time four years ago, journalists who were covering it, analysts, all said that the scale of Khatami's victory was so great that the conservative hard-line would neither have the will nor the ability to directly challenge it. We have seen that they had both the will and the ability. What is their strategy in the face of a second landslide?

NAMAZI: Well, it's an unexpected landslide. And if we go back to four years ago, the hard-line right -- and I don't want to lump all the conservatives into one group -- the hard-line right was really dumbfounded by the landslide election, and I think that we can expect the same reaction. I think no one expected such a high turnout and such a high mandate for Mr. Khatami. So, we could expect them to react a little confused and dizzied by what's going on. (END VIDEOTAPE)