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CNN Live At Daybreak

In Iran This Morning, Voters Going to Polls

Aired February 20, 2004 - 05:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In Iran this morning, voters are going to the polls in parliamentary elections and the suspense is not really over the outcome, but the turnout.
CNN's Matthew Chance joins us live from Tehran to explain further -- good morning.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you, as well.

That's right, these elections well and truly under way here in Iran. They're set to sweep the hard-line conservatives into the country's parliament simply because most of the reform candidates have either been excluded by the hard-line conservative leadership of Iran or have chosen to boycott in protest, basically leaving all 290 seats, or most of them, unopposed for the hard-liners to take in this election.

The real battle, though, is being fought for the 46 million voters in this country and voter turnout has become a key issue. The reformists urging voters to stay away from the ballot boxes today, saying that if there is a low voter turnout, then it will be a protest, at least a small moral victory for their cause -- Carol.

COSTELLO: How is the turnout so far, Matthew? Do you know?

CHANCE: It's very difficult to judge. It's still very much early on in the process. People apparently tend to vote later on in the day. We also don't have the kind of infrastructure here to go across the country where these elections are taking place.

But I visited one polling station earlier today in central Tehran, one of the main polling stations, and it was relatively busy, certainly more busy than we expected. But one of the things I noticed, there weren't many young people there. Most of the people there were older than 30. I think it's important to remember that in this country, 70 percent of the population is age 30 or below, have been born since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. And it's amongst those people that there is the most apathy here.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

Matthew Chance live from Tehran, Iran.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 20, 2004 - 05:20   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In Iran this morning, voters are going to the polls in parliamentary elections and the suspense is not really over the outcome, but the turnout.
CNN's Matthew Chance joins us live from Tehran to explain further -- good morning.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you, as well.

That's right, these elections well and truly under way here in Iran. They're set to sweep the hard-line conservatives into the country's parliament simply because most of the reform candidates have either been excluded by the hard-line conservative leadership of Iran or have chosen to boycott in protest, basically leaving all 290 seats, or most of them, unopposed for the hard-liners to take in this election.

The real battle, though, is being fought for the 46 million voters in this country and voter turnout has become a key issue. The reformists urging voters to stay away from the ballot boxes today, saying that if there is a low voter turnout, then it will be a protest, at least a small moral victory for their cause -- Carol.

COSTELLO: How is the turnout so far, Matthew? Do you know?

CHANCE: It's very difficult to judge. It's still very much early on in the process. People apparently tend to vote later on in the day. We also don't have the kind of infrastructure here to go across the country where these elections are taking place.

But I visited one polling station earlier today in central Tehran, one of the main polling stations, and it was relatively busy, certainly more busy than we expected. But one of the things I noticed, there weren't many young people there. Most of the people there were older than 30. I think it's important to remember that in this country, 70 percent of the population is age 30 or below, have been born since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. And it's amongst those people that there is the most apathy here.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

Matthew Chance live from Tehran, Iran.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com