Iran election campaigners seek refuge in Islamic rhetoric

A picture of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, glares down from an enormous election banner onto a busy street in central Tehran, ahead of a crucial parliamentary vote in the Islamic state this week.
Iran's first nation-wide vote since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 has been marked by increased rhetoric extolling Islamic values as pressure mounts on the Iranian authorities - from at home and abroad.
Leading reformist candidates have refused to stand in Friday's vote, leaving rival hard-line factions of the Supreme Leader and President Ahmadinejad to battle it out.
Ayatollah Khamenei's image and words dominate Tehran billboards. "Elections are a sign of a nation's livelihood and awareness," Khamenei states on one above one of the city's busy highways. The staid electioneering is in contrast to the colourful campaigns that have marked votes in recent years.
Even Ahmadinejad's supporters are co-opting Khamenei's image to attract voters, given the unpopularity of the president whose policies are blamed for Iran's economic crisis.
In the last 18 months, the withdrawal of food and fuel subsidies, coupled with the plummeting value of the Iranian currency, has hit hard the pockets of many Iranian families.
Iran has pressed ahead with its nuclear programme despite increasing alarm among the United States and its allies. They believe Tehran is attempting to develop the skills to build nuclear weapons and have imposed sanctions targeting Iranian financial institutions and its oil industry.
The alliance of groups that back Khamenei have attacked Ahmadinejad's handling of the economy and look set to deliver a critical blow.
It is Khamenei's picture, not Ahmadinejad's, that greets visitors to the website of the Supporters of the Islamic Government Front, the main party representing Ahmadinejad's allies.
"Ahmadinejad's allies are momentarily putting aside their differences with the (supreme) leader only for the sake of more votes," said a political analyst in Tehran who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They want to create an image that suggests the two men are very close."