Iran’s first elections since ’09 unrest mark a stark contrast

With reformists kept off the ballot, this vote is largely about hard-liners positioning themselves for the 2013 presidential vote.

Iranians cast ballots for a new parliament Friday amid a silent boycott by reformists and exhortations from the nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to deliver “a blow to the mouth” to the United States and Iran’s other enemies.

from By Ramin Mostaghim and Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

via http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-iran-election-20120303,0,543812.story?track=rss