tried to shoot their way across the border. 

President Khatami announced that he would run for re-election. But the media is controlled buy his foes, the religious conservatives, so the voters only found out about this from foreign media. The conservatives, who control the media, military, police and judiciary, are using their power to prevent reform minded candidates from running for election. Democracy has allowed the conservatives to maintain their power by taking off some of the popular demand for more moderate, and less religious controlled, government. But the trend is towards a showdown between reform minded elected officials and religious conservatives unwilling to yield their power.