Registration starts for Iran's parliamentary poll

The vote will be especially hard fought between supporters and opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad within the conservative camp.The countrys major reformist groups are staying out of the race, claiming that basic requirements for free and fair elections have not been met.In their absence, the poll for the 290-seat assembly is likely to pit hard-line candidates who remain staunchly loyal to the countrys Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against conservatives who support Ahmadinejad.The March 2 elections will be the first nationwide balloting since Ahmadinejads re-election in 2009, which the opposition said was heavily rigged.That vote set off months of near-daily protests in which hundreds of thousands took to the streets in support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi who they claimed was the rightful winner.The wave of protests was the biggest challenge to Irans clerical leadership since it came to power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But a heavy crackdown suppressed the protests, and many in the opposition from midlevel political figures to street activists, journalists and human rights workers were arrested. The opposition has not been able to hold a major protest since December 2009.