Iran's Pres. Candidates Recognize the Web as a Go-To to Win

DUBAI, U.A.E, May 17, 2009 — -- Presidential candidates looking to make headway in a key youth demographic try to win votes with high-tech outreach through YouTube, Facebook and cellphone alerts.

But this isn't Washington in November 2008. It's Iran, in the Persian calendar year 1388.

And it's a sign of a critical election heating up in an increasingly tech-connected society. In roughly one month, Iranian voters will decide whether President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad leaves office or sits for another four-year term.

More than 400 candidates registered to run against him, but three are in the spotlight: reformist cleric and former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi; pro-reform centrist and former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi; and conservative former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaie.

Of the three, Mousavi is seen as the strongest challenger and the most high tech. His campaign maintains a Facebook page and a Twitter account . A two-minute YouTube video plays up some of his credentials: revolutionary devotion, his experience in the Iran-Iraq War and his roughly 20-year absence from politics.

Relative to the competition, he's campaigning as a political outsider, bashing the Iranian equivalent of Beltway politics. Along with it, a firm branding of Mousavi as the political heir to liberal President Mohammad Khatami, with the tagline on his profile picture that reads, "With Khatami, Vote Mousavi."

"Mousavi's campaign has been the most visible online. He has made the most of use of [technology], because he is appealing for the most part ... to intellectuals and young people and women," said Kelly Niknejad, publisher of online news site TehranBureau.com.

Mousavi's aide Behzad Mortazavi told the Financial Times he's looking to technology for viral growth and amplification of their campaign's core message.

"We are using new technologies because they have the capacity to be multiplied by people themselves who can forward Bluetooth, e-mails and text messages and invite more supporters on Facebook," Mortazavi said.

Scanning Mousavi's 1,795 Facebook friends shows an array of young, fresh-faced Iranians. That is, in large part, the point of his campaign's digital arm -- mobilizing the young, educated, urban youth that could hand Mousavi a victory June 12.