TEHRAN, - With more than 60 percent of Iranians born after their nation's revolution in 1979, the under-30 vote will be crucial in next week's election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being challenged by three fiercely critical rivals.
Several analysts predict a high urban youth turnout in favour of former premier Mir Hossein Mousavi, unknown to many young Iranians but who is passionately promoted by Ahmadinejad's reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami.
Tehran has been gripped by a new fashion frenzy ahead of the June 12 vote, with scores of teenagers and 20-somethings sporting green wristbands, scarves and T-shirts -- but not as an environmental statement.
Green, associated in Iran with descendants of the Prophet Mohammad, has been chosen as the campaign colour of candidate Mousavi, who was the Islamic republic's prime minister during the war with Iraq in the 80s.
This week young men and women started rallying in many city squares and busy crossings, shouting "Mousavi we support you" and seeking to lure passing cars with campaign literature and pictures of their favoured candidate.
"Ahmadinejad has awfully harassed us," Armita Diba, a 25-year-old law intern said in Tehran's bustling Tajrish square.
"I want the liberties we had under Khatami," she said.
Diba, who was wearing a Mousavi pin on her chest, did not vote in Iran's 2005 presidential election which saw Ahmadinejad victorious.
"This time I'm dragging everyone to the poll, even my grandma."
Ahmadinejad's young supporters have also been marching though Tehran streets -- in visibly smaller numbers -- urging citizens to vote for "Mahmoud Mardomi Nejad" (man of the people).
The two camps take each other on in heated debates and clashes have been reported between them.
"Ahmadinejad is a modest man with real guts. Don't you see how he talks tough to America?" asked Ali Babai, an 18-year-old student who travels across the city everyday to campaign for Ahmadinejad in northern Tehran.
"Who knows this Mousavi anyway?" retorts the first-time voter, regretting that his parents support the greying former premier.
"The middle class and especially young people stayed away from the poll in 2005 because they were disillusioned with the reforms," sociologist and reformist journalist Hamidreza Jalaipour said.
"But now you see election fervour building up mostly to put an end to the deteriorating path the country is headed," he said.
Under Ahmadinejad, Iran has experienced soaring inflation of 25 percent, persistent unemployment of over 12 percent.
Many young Iranians born in the 1980s do not know Mousavi, an uncharismatic 67-year-old architect and painter, who has stepped out of the political wilderness after 20 years.
But the relative freedom they enjoyed during Khatami's 1997 to 2005 presidency and his backing of Mousavi is a key determinant of their choice, many voters said.
They are going to "come out strong in this election too as they have felt the impact of their presence," political analyst Farzaneh Roostaee said.
"Ahmadinejad's government has alienated and antagonised the urban middle class," she said, describing the incumbent's support camp as "hardliners, a small rich group linked to the government and rural, lower income people."
"But it is Iran's city people who call the shots in the elections," said Roostaee, diplomatic editor of leading reformist daily Etemad.
"Depending on their turnout, big victories and defeats are scored in Iran," she said. "This election will be signified by a 'spiteful vote', a chance to say no to the status quo."
Another presidential contender, reformist Mehdi Karroubi, is also said to have garnered support on campuses following his repeated condemnations of pressures faced by student activists and vows of safeguarding freedom.
Yet in the absence of reliable opinion polls in Iran, it remains to be seen how many disaffected citizens will actually turn out to vote on June 12.
Mousavi attacks Ahmadinejad's in Iran TV debate
Mousavi accused Ahmadinejad of "undermining" the Islamic republic's dignity during his four-year term, in a television debate on Wednesday ahead of next week's presidential poll.
Ahmadinejad's government "has undermined the dignity of our nation," said Mousavi who is considered the conservative president's main challenger in the June 12 election.
"It has inflicted heavy damages on us and created tension with other countries. It has left us with not a single friend in the region," said Mousavi.
The "mismanagement" of the country by Ahmadinejad's government forced him to enter the presidential race, Mousavi said in the debate aired by the English-language station Press TV.
He charged that Ahmadinejad's foreign policy suffers from "adventurism, instability, exhibitionism and extremism."
Ahmadinejad, who opened the debate, said he and his government have been facing sustained "attacks" from Mousavi and his supporters, like two-time former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and reformist Mohammad Khatami.
"They said in six months this government will fall apart... they tried to crush this government," said Ahmadinejad who is seeking a second term in office.
"I have tolerated insults against me and my government over the past four years. I have been called a dictator," he said, adding that his position on the Holocaust has also been criticised by his opponents.
The incumbent president said that next week's election was not a race between four candidates but one that is pitting "three people against one," a reference to presidential hopefuls Mousavi, former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi and ex-head of Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezai.
"It is all against one person," he said.
And in a rare move, Ahmadinehad accused some supporters of Mousavi, especially sons of Rafsanjani, of having received financial privileges in the past.
Mousavi countered by saying that the "evasion of laws" under Ahmadinejad's government was leading to "minor dictatorship by not respecting the parliament and other top bodies."
At one point, Ahmadinejad made a scathing personal attack on Mousavi, saying his wife, who he did not name, had "received her Phd without attending university exams."
"This is lawlessness. My government is based on laws and regulations," he said showing a white coloured photo copy which he said was the doctorate's degree of Zahra Rahnavard.
A visibly angry, Mousavi shot back saying his wife "is a prominent intellectual who had worked for 10 years to get her Phd."
"She has done research in Koranic studies," he said, and then used the opportunity to urge Iranians to vote on June 12 to "change the situation."
"I am coming to change the situation... to change this mentality, so that nobody suffers from public accusation. You (Ahmadinejad) are endangering the country," Mousavi said, cutting short the conservative opponent who was trying to counter-attack.
Mousavi also poured scorn on Ahmadinejad's foreign policy.
The debate was the second of a total of six.
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