American Foreign Policy Council: Tomorrow, when Iranians go to the polls to elect a new president, all eyes will be on the Islamic Republic. The outcome of Iran’s presidential race will undoubtedly be important for the legitimacy of the country’s current clerical regime, now embroiled in a thorny diplomatic dispute with the United States and Europe over its nuclear program. But it will be even more decisive for the Iranian people, whose urge for democracy is poised to take a giant step backward.

Washington Times: While Iran continues to play an ongoing nuclear ping-pong match with the European Union, risking the nuclear stability of the Middle East and a possible showdown with the West, it is also eagerly preparing for its upcoming elections Friday. Carrying the flag of Islamic democracy, the “rule of law,” progress and change, Iran is attempting to compete in two worlds simultaneously as it hopes to emerge victorious in both.

Washington Times – Editorial: As Iranian voters get ready to go to the polls tomorrow in the first round of presidential elections, the avalanche of breathless media hype has already begun. We’ve been treated to plenty of pontificating over the supposed “liberals” (the enlightened ones who tell us what we want to hear about women’s rights and political freedom).

The Globe and Mail: Better that voters stay home than endorse the country’s democratic facade, say freedom monitors: Iranian student leader Akbar Atri recently declared that “reform is dead” in his country. His pessimism is understandable. After eight years of futile attempts at democratic reform by the once popular President Mohammad Khatami, Iranians face a political moment as dark as any encountered during their
country’s 26 years of theocratic dictatorship.