Iran's hardliners headed for sweeping election victory
Conservatives, empowered by revived stand-off with US, win all 30 seats in Teheran
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a meeting in Teheran yesterday. Given the vacuum among moderate candidates, conservative factions loyal to Mr Khamenei and generally opposed to engaging with the West were widely expected to prevail in the parliamentary elections. Preliminary results showed that hardliners won a majority of the 290 seats.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
TEHERAN • Iranian hardliners headed for victory in parliamentary elections, sweeping Teheran and other cities in a repudiation of President Hassan Rouhani's engagement with outside powers.
The vote was widely predicted to hand control of the legislature to conservatives empowered by the country's revived, economically damaging stand-off with the United States.
Preliminary results showed that hardliners won a majority of the 290 seats, according to a tally compiled by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
The estimated turnout was about 42 per cent, the Fars news agency reported, which would be the lowest in the Islamic republic's history.
Hardliners and conservatives won all 30 seats in Teheran, the largest and most influential constituency, Fars reported on Saturday after polls closed at midnight.
Mehr said they also dominated in Esfahan, Khuzestan, Mazandaran and several other provinces.
Participation was held back by the powerful Guardian Council's disqualification of hundreds of moderates and reformists, Mr Rouhani's loss of political credibility as the US reimposed sanctions and a reported surge in coronavirus cases in Iran.
Turnout in the 2016 election, dominated by reformers and moderates who supported Mr Rouhani and the nuclear deal with global powers, was almost 62 per cent.
Given the vacuum among moderate candidates, conservative factions loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and generally opposed to engaging with the West were widely expected to prevail.
Mr Khamenei, on his official news portal, praised the "shining of the Iranian nation in the big test of the elections", while accusing "foreign propaganda apparatus" of invoking the virus "to dissuade people from taking part in the elections".
42%
The estimated turnout at the polls, according to the Fars news agency, which would be the lowest in the Islamic republic's history.
Recent military exchanges, including the killing of Major-General Qassem Soleimani in a US strike, and highly charged rhetoric that has punctuated the confrontation with Washington, have also energised Mr Khamenei's base.
If arch-conservatives emerge victorious, they will control most branches of the state for the first time since the end of Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency in 2013.
Mr Rouhani, who delivered on his promise to end Iran's long-running nuclear stand-off with global powers but was unable to build a new era of prosperity when faced with President Donald Trump's economic offensive, will be largely sidelined.
The election also had significant potential consequences for the Iranian economy and the wider Middle East region, including any hope that Iran will renegotiate its landmark 2015 nuclear settlement from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2018.
"The crux of this vote is whether it will indicate the outcome for the next presidential elections, which will be more significant," said senior policy fellow Ellie Geranmayeh at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "If the Rouhani opposition does take over Parliament, they will see this as ammunition that galvanises them, and they won't want him to have any foreign policy success in his last year."
REUTERS