Iranians go to the polling stations on Friday to elect a new parliament with one main aim -- to vote in legislators who can tame the country’s runaway inflation.

The current MPs won their seats in parliament on promises to raise the standard of living and bridge the gap between the classes.
However, after nearly four years, the economic policies of the parliament have ended in failure. MPs revised the Fourth Five-Year Development Plan, fixed the price of some commodities, including energy prices -- a move seriously opposed by economic experts -- and gave the administration a free hand to inject more liquidity into the financial system by approving bills it proposed.
Duet to such inexpert policies, inflation rose and the gap between rich and poor was not reduced but widened.
Unfortunately, the lofty goals of the parliament were not realized.
The sitting lawmakers still argue that they revised the Fourth Development Plan to prevent price rises but what happened was a far cry from their professed goal.
Moreover, they regard the decision to ration gasoline as one of their best moves because it saved the country billions of dollars.
Although rationing was better than the previous system, it didn’t cause a great change because about $6 billion was spent to import gasoline in the current fiscal year. More importantly, it was not a proper solution to the problem caused by the heavy subsidization of petrol, which has undermined efforts to establish social justice.
The majority faction in parliament is still chanting the same slogans about controlling inflation and raising the standard of living, but the same lawmakers recently approved the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year (starts March 20, 2008), which, according to economic experts and even some sitting MPs, will lead to about 20 percent inflation in the next year and will make the economy eight percent more dependent on oil revenues.
However, some MPs running for reelection, sensing a voter backlash, have made some electoral maneuvers to distance themselves from the failed economic policies.
Thus, to ameliorate the situation, it is hoped that the new MPs of every political persuasion -- rightists, leftists, and independents -- seek the views of experts outside parliament to reduce inflation and refrain from passing any bills before making expert studies, especially economic bills