Newsha Tavakolian for The New York Times
Supporters of Hassan Rowhani, a candidate who is popular with middle-class voters otherwise turned off by the campaign, at a Tehran rally on Saturday.
TEHRAN — The eight men hoping to become the next president of Iran sat at a long table last week and were shown pictures of things like container ships and traffic jams and asked for their reactions.
Newsha Tavakolian for The New York Times
Backers of Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, Tehran’s mayor, in a suburb of the city. Security forces are making sure there are no spontaneous gatherings before Friday’s vote.
“What do you see?” a debate moderator asked one of the men, the former vice president Mohammad Reza Aref, who dropped out of the race days later. “I believe this is a tourist attraction,” Mr. Aref said, squinting while looking at an open-pit mine.
Wary of the raucous street demonstrations that erupted during the last election in 2009, the government decreed that this year’s presidential campaign would consist of rallies in predetermined spaces and a series of tedious, four-hour debates that many Iranians dismissed as more like a pointless quiz show than a discussion of real issues.
“Where are all the leaflets, the posters?” asked Roghaye Heydari, 55, who had come to the capital from her hometown, Dowlatabad, where most people see voting as a national duty. “Why are they not trying to create a proper atmosphere?”
Now, instead of election posters coloring the streets, plainclothes police officers hang around at major crossings, making sure there are no spontaneous gatherings.
“I have never seen so much secret police in my life,” a shopper could be overheard telling her friend near the central Haft-e Tir Square on Saturday, nodding at groups of men wearing fashionable clothes that did not suit them.
But it is not just the public that feels the effects of the restrictions. The candidates themselves constantly run up against ideological red lines.
On Friday, in the final hour of the last debate, some of the candidates seemed to forget the unwritten rule that forbids giving details of closed-door talks about delicate government matters. Discussing a planned crackdown on student protests in 2002 and missed opportunities in the negotiations with the West on Iran’s nuclear program, they had to catch themselves, saying things like “my chest is filled with things I cannot say” and “this is not the place to discuss such matters.”
The problem was especially pronounced with the two candidates who are considered the most popular with the middle-class voters who have been mostly turned off by the campaign: Hassan Rowhani, who has attracted some of the veterans of the opposition Green movement; and Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, Tehran’s mayor, who is liked for his management style.
While trying to appeal to these voters, they also need to be cautious around the governing establishment of conservative clerics and Revolutionary Guards commanders — the so-called traditionalists — who suspect Mr. Rowhani of secretly siding with the opposition and Mr. Ghalibaf of being a closet pragmatist rather than a revolutionary.
Matters are also complicated by the government’s desire for a large turnout to give the vote greater credibility. So for Mr. Rowhani and Mr. Ghalibaf — and, to a lesser extent, the other candidates — the election period is a balancing act between self-censorship and attracting votes. The candidates are supposed to provide enough talking points to make at least 50 million eligible voters go out and cast their ballots, while not pushing the buttons about individual rights and the shortcomings of the government that created such excitement before the 2009 vote.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, urged the candidates last week to be positive and to refrain from unjust attacks and pessimism. “We must not please the enemy in any way,” he said.
That means there is no room for real debate on thorny issues like Iran’s support for Syria, the state’s handling of domestic opponents and the roots of its economic problems.
Those close to Iran’s leaders are pleased with the televised debates. “The good thing is that all candidates observed national interests,” said a former conservative lawmaker, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh. “They all observed the code of Islamic ethics and refrained from revealing classified information.”
For Mr. Rowhani, who is the most outspoken candidate, this means walking a minefield.
During a campaign rally in a stadium in Tehran on Saturday, he waved at electrified crowds of young men and women but fell silent when those in the hall shouted, “Freedom for the political prisoners.”
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