Opponents of Iran’s ailing Premier Mohammed Mossadegh rolled up their blankets this week, marched off to Parliament, and staged a sit-down strike.

The opposition gesture typified the hot-blooded atmosphere in Iran as national elections finally got underway this week.

The opposition to Mossadegh is not well organized, but it is apparently well financed and determined. It seeks to replace the premier’s extreme nationalist regime with a conservative, moderate government more inclined to seek some quick solution to the oil crisis growing out of the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. [AIOC]

Mossadegh’s opponents view such a solution as coming probably through the creation of an international company to refine and distribute Iran’s rich but, at present, unexploited oil reserves.

The duration of the voting period will be decided by election committees in the various provinces of Iran. Just how long the current elections will last is anybody’s guess.