Following elections held in February 2000 the reformists...

Following elections held in February 2000 the reformists backing moderate President Mohammad Khatami won 79 percent of the vote compared with 21 percent for the conservatives. The Iranian vote, in which more than 80% of the electorate participated, including women and youths 16years or older, resulted in what appeared to be a peaceful transfer of legislative power from hard-line conservatives to pro-freedom reformers for the first time in Iran's modern history. The 1999 figures for capital sentences and executions in Iran are unrealistic and vague. At least 138 (through January-August, according to the UN). They were often carried out in a public square, and at least one juvenile was put to death. Opposition sources report at least 600 executions and thousands of arrests, especially during the student protests in the summer. Armed smuggling and possession of more than 1 ounce of heroin or more than 11 pounds of opium are punishable by death in Iran, but in practice, that punishment is reserved for repeat offenders or people handling larger quantities of narcotics, Iranian officials said. 740 drug traffickers were executed in Iran in 1999. Iran started strict anti-drug campaigns in 1989 after the Iranian Majlis (parliament) passed an anti-drug law authorizing capital punishment for drug traffickers.