Iranian President Hassan Rowhani appears to have strengthened his hand after strong showing by moderates in elections
The election was an important test for Rowhani, who was elected in 2013 to resolve the crisis over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, which had prompted harsh sanctions and isolated the country’s economy
Moderates were poised for a strong showing as votes were counted Saturday in Iranian parliamentary elections that served as a referendum on the nuclear deal Iran struck with six world powers last year.
Supporters of the deal and of President Hassan Rowhani were expected to pick up more seats in the 290-seat parliament. That could allow Rowhani to pursue further rapprochement with the West, implement some domestic reforms and attract more foreign investment – aims that had been thwarted by conservative hardliners in the previous parliament.
While none of the several competing factions were likely to gain a majority, anti-Western conservatives and their allies were likely to retain control of the legislature – as they have since 2004 – after thousands of moderate candidates were disqualified before the vote.
In preliminary results released late Saturday, two parliamentary candidates allied with Rowhani, Mohammad Reza Aref and Ali Motahari, garnered the most votes in the Tehran constituency, the country’s largest.
Rowhani thanked the people of Iran in a statement and said: “Whatever the results, the reputation of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been enhanced.”
Voters also were selecting the 88-member Assembly of Experts, which chooses the country’s clerical supreme leader. In Iran’s hybrid political system, major decisions rest with that leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Depriving the hardliners of one seat in the parliament and Assembly of Experts is better than nothing
The results released by the Interior Ministry showed that Rowhani was running second in the race for the assembly in Tehran, behind an influential ally, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Turnout in Friday’s election was 60 per cent of nearly 55 million eligible voters, the Interior Ministry said, a high figure that analysts said would benefit moderates and reformists. Voting was extended for several hours in some polling places as people waited in long lines to cast ballots.
Two leaders of the opposition Green Movement who are under house arrest, Mir Hossain Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, were supplied with ballot papers and allowed to vote Friday, according to Kalame, a website close to the movement. The move was seen as a slight relaxation of the restrictions against the reformists, who came to prominence in 2009 after a disputed election and have been in near-isolation for the last four years.
But another Green Movement leader, Mehdi Karroubi, was refused the opportunity to vote, according to reports.
The election was an important test for Rowhani, who was elected in 2013 to resolve the crisis over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, which had prompted harsh sanctions and isolated the country’s economy. The US and other countries lifted the most severe sanctions after Iran complied with restrictions on its nuclear programme, and although economic benefits have not yet trickled down to the average Iranian, the deal remains widely popular.
The hardline Guardian Council tossed out thousands of candidates before the election, many of them reformists, prompting Rowhani supporters remaining in the race to form a broader alliance with moderates and conservatives who back his policies. Many Iranians said they voted against hardliners to strengthen Rowhani’s hand in parliament.
“If I do not vote for reformists today, I will have nightmares and a guilty conscience” until the next election, said Reza Agharahimi, 28, who stood in line for an hour to cast a ballot Friday morning in an affluent neighbourhood in northern Tehran, a stronghold of the reformists.
“Depriving the hardliners of one seat in the parliament and Assembly of Experts is better than nothing,” he said.
In low-income and working-class southern districts of the capital, however, turnout was lower, as residents said they were fed up with economic struggles and saw no benefit in casting ballots.
“Why on Earth should I vote for any of them? They don’t take care of my economic needs,” said Abolfazl Hasani, a retired army colonel who was out shopping for fruit. “Any vote I made in past decades was a mistake.”
