HOLY CITY OF QOM, Iran: Ahead of next month's presidential election, two of Iran's most senior opposition Ayaat have lashed out at the Islamic regime accusing it of failing to deliver on revolutionary promises of fundamental freedoms.

Ayatullah Hossein Ali Montazeri and Ayatullah Yousef Sane’i also voiced cynicism over the prospect for a free and fair poll on June 17 in interviews with AFP conducted in the holy city of Qom which houses the holy shrine of Hazret-e-Fatimeh Al-Masoumeh (p), daughter of Hazret-e-Imam Mousa Al-Kazem (p).

"My point of view, and I cannot say more than this, is that things are not going in the right direction," said Ayatullah Montazeri. "At the beginning of the revolution the late Imam (Ayatullah Ruhollah Moosawi Khomeini) and I gave promises of liberty, and these promises have not been lived up to."

He said disdainfully: "I have no opinion regarding the elections. I have stopped giving my opinion, because every time I have given my point of view the reverse seems to happen."

Ayatullah Montazeri complained he was still the victim of tough regime controls.

"I am no longer under house arrest but the way they are treating me is not correct," he said. "My offices in Mashhad and in Isfahan have been closed by the special clerics court. I am only able to give small lectures in my home twice a week."

The entrance to his narrow, dusty street also remains under close watch. His Holy Qom lecture hall, situated next to his home, has also been sealed off for close to a decade. The centre sports huge portraits of Grand Ayatullah Khomeini and his successor Ayatullah Ali Khamenei -- serving as a reminder of who is now in charge.

In a neighboring street, Ayatullah Yousef Sane’i also had reserved harsh words for the regime.
"We cannot foresee the future. We do not know if we can trust the candidates to deliver on their promises and to what extent the rights of the people will be preserved and how much choice they will have," he said.

The issue of choice has emerged as a contentious issue in Iranian elections, with the Guardians Council -- an unelected political watchdog -- brandishing the power to screen all candidates for public office.

Ahead of the February 2004 parliament elections, the council disqualified thousands of candidates, most of them political moderates, handing certain victory to religious right-wingers.

"There should not be guardianship. In an election guardians are not needed, it is contrary to human liberty," declared Sane’i.

He has also stated that women have the undeniable right to hold the most senior positions in the country -- including president or judge -- even though any women seeking to stand in the June 17 election are certain to be disqualified on the grounds of their sex.

Sane’i said the figure Iran needed as a future president was someone "who can follow the trend of the way that Moosawi carried out politics."

Mir Hossein Moosawi served in the now-defunct post of Prime Minister from 1981 to 1989 and during that period enjoyed almost constant support from the founding father of Islamic Republic of Iran Grand Ayatullah Khomeini.

Devotees of incumbent President Mohammad Khatami have been trying to convince Moosawi -- seen as a political moderate -- to stand again. But he has refused to pick up the torch of the struggling movement.