Iran: More than 1,000 candidates have been disqualified from standing in the presidential elections in Iran next month prompting calls for voters to boycott the polls.
Only six candidates out of a record 1,014 passed the strict criteria by the Guardian Council, a powerful conservative vetting body made up of 12 unelected clerics and lawyers that judges them against constitutional requirements including religious credentials.
With contenders as unlikely as a former national goalkeeper, several political dissidents, a multilingual vagrant and 93 women - women are not allowed to run - it was obvious from the outset that most of the candidates would be weeded out by the council.
But the council barred the main reformist candidate, outspoken student supporter Mustafa Moin, causing an outcry among the reformist camp.
"We are warning the Guardian Council that we will not participate in the election if it doesn't reverse its decision," Rajabali Mazrouei, a prominent member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the largest reform party, told Associated Press. "Barring reform candidates means there will be no free or fair election."
Iranians will now have to decide between four former hardline conservative military commanders, an ex-president and a former parliament speaker, a mid-ranking cleric who is the only candidate not to hail from the conservative camp.
The frontrunner is the mercurial ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The godfather of Iranian politics, 70-year-old Mr Rafsanjani, a moderate conservative, is seen as the man who can steer Iran through the escalating nuclear crisis and end the 25-year detente with the United States.
"There's an overall sense that the country is at a time of potential crisis, and Iran needs an experienced captain to take hold of the ship. People view Rafsanjani as the most powerful, or at least the second most powerful man in the country," said Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst with International Crisis Group.
"Rafsanjani is the voice of reason. He is seen as the man who can conclude the nuclear issue and the nuclear issue is part and parcel of his greater ability to have greater rapprochement with the West," he added.
A pragmatic populist, he can make deals without losing credibility and looking weak. He has consistently stressed that he wants to strike a deal with America to release Iran's frozen assets seized after the American hostage crisis in 1980, a figure he puts at $8 billion plus interest. Mr Rafsanjani will also seek an end to sanctions which have crippled Iran's aviation industry, and analysts say he will bargain for membership of the World Trade Organisation.
And Mr Rafsanjani has pawns to play with - Iran holds al-Qaeda detainees and information on the terrorist network that America is itching to get hold of.
But the main problem facing not only Mr Rafsanjani but all the candidates is the threat of a low voter turnout. Unofficial estimates have predicted a turnout of between 40-50 per cent - the lowest figure for a presidential election in the 26-year history of the Islamic Republic, where voter turnout is often as high as 70 per cent.
"What's the point in voting? Where did it get us last time?" said Parvin Amiri, one of thousands of students to vote for reformist president Mohammad Khatami who won a landslide victory in 1997. But the lame-duck president failed to push through any of the social reforms he promised, causing many supporters to turn their backs on the reform movement altogether, generating a climate of growing disillusionment and apathy.
A burgeoning boycott movement also threatens turnout, with Iranian internet blog sites and students urging voters to stay away as a form of protest. "Iran desperately needs a high voter turnout for the regime to look legitimate," said Shirzad Bozorghmehr, managing editor of reformist daily Iran News.
And this is exactly what those spearheading the boycott have in mind. "I am urging all my friends not to vote. The reformists are dead and our only options are hardline conservatives. What kind of an option is that?" said Amiri.