TEHRAN An overhaul is needed in political culture to help materialization of rule of law in imbroglio-ridden Iran, an Iranian university professor said here Sunday.

"I was surprised when President Mohammad Khatami initiated rule of law in Iran, a country which is used to being lawless for years," Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, member of Geopolitics Department of London University told IRNA.

"Negligence of law in this country (Iran) has a deep root and uprooting this ignorance which has taken shape in the cultural area is not easy," he said.

He said that institutionalization of the rule of law will take two or three decades to take effect.

The Iranian society has not yet understood well that democracy could be materialized only through the rule of law, he said.

Mojtahedzadeh said that high turnout in elections is not a sign of democracy and that "deserved" figures should take the helm in the country to create a democratic society.

He said that the May 23, 1997 presidential elections was a landmark move by Iranians which demonstrated that the people are after reforms and political development and openness.

The epic gave Khatami a landslide victory over his conservative rival with over 70 percent of the total vote.

He, however, noted that certain shortcomings by lawmakers in the country stymied materialization of government-planned goals.

Asked on the next year's presidential election scheduled for May 2000, Mojtahedzadeh said, "Prima facie it seems that the people will not turn out as they did in the previous one, but if the people are convinced that political development cannot be achieved in four years, the turnout will be higher."

"If the Iranian society is convinced that the government is undertaking efforts to live up to its promises on political and economic premises, the current government will be also supported in next mandates," he said.

Despite sarcasms from the conservative camp, Khatami has made known his decision to run for a second term.

Asked to comment on Khatami's administration on the economic premises, the Iranian professor said, "If the government followed the same political developments in economic management, the society would enjoy better conditions."

While, economy is the first-degree concern of the people, he said, the government has not yet taken any effective measure in this regard.

Last month, on presenting the annual budget for the next Iranian calendar year, President Khatami said that the economy is running well.

He shrugged off conservative charges that he has made no progress in repairing the economy since his 1997 election.

"Contrary to the claims of the government's opponents, the economy is running well despite the problems faced by poor families and the disadvantaged," he told the legislature.

Khatami's government has come under heavy fire in recent weeks after the Central Bank released a flood of petrodollars onto the parallel exchange market, pushing the dollar below 8,000 rials for the first time in more than a year.

(IRNA)