Iran's Ballot Box

SF Chronicle, Editorial:

Iran's mullahs have a problem. Obliged to hold a presidential vote Friday, they've cleared the field of most dissidents. But will voters buy this rigged setup and keep the clerical kingdom intact? READ MORE

Democracy can be unpredictable, even in an Islamic theocracy that tries to bottle up protest. The oil-rich nation of 68 million may be on the verge of breaking free of this clique of disconnected clerics. It could be this election or another, but Iran's surprisingly pluralist politics are moving away from the cartoon era of the "Great Satan" label for the United States.

The front-runner is Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former two-term president and a relative moderate. His clerical credentials are impeccable, and he comes with ample experience in foreign affairs -- badly needed to handle an international outcry over Iran's secret nuclear program.

But Rafsanjani is 70 years old in a country where half the population is under 24. Women, democratic groups and students are unhappy with the choices on the ballot. One debate in this election is whether to vote at all, a problem that obliged the mullahs to widen the candidate roster to pump up turnout.

Whatever the result, Iran will remain, at least for now, a nation with a split personality. There will be clerics atop politics with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the apex. These leaders police public life by shutting down newspapers, jailing those who dissent and enforcing strict Islamic laws limiting women's rights.

But look to the rooftops to see another nation. Next to water cisterns are satellite dishes, where the country drinks in international TV the mullahs can't control. The narrow political order can't hold for long.

The White House, if it has any sense, will clam up during the final days of this race and await the results. Almost any comment will enlist support for Iran's hardliners. Let this flawed vote play out.