Reformists Clobber Hardliners in Early Iran Vote Results

The newly elected body could therefore play a major role in shaping the future of Iran, which is deeply divided between hard-liners who are hostile to the West and relative moderates who want to expand freedoms and improve relations with the global community.

The latest results of Iran’s parliamentary polls released on Sunday point to gains by the country’s reformists.

“The biggest achievement of this election is the return of reformists to the ruling system … so they won’t be called seditionists or infiltrators anymore”, he said, referring to conservatives who accused reformists of links to the West.

Iran’s moderates have dealt another blow to the country’s hard-liners, winning the majority of seats in last week’s vote for the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body empowered with choosing the nation’s supreme leader.

In all, reformist-backed candidates claimed 52 of the assembly’s 88 seats, according to the Interior Ministry, including 15 of 16 races in Tehran.

While conservatives still keep hold of many seats in both bodies, the assembly’s results are in favor of the reformists not because reformist candidates are stepping into the clerical body but because of alliances with successful moderate-leaning candidates.

Fazli said the second round of elections for the Majlis will be held in the second half of April 2016.

Turnout in the election was solid at around 60 percent, slightly less than the 64 per cent of 2012.

Supporters of Rouhani, who promoted the nuclear deal, were pitted against hardliners close to Khamenei, who are wary of detente with Western countries. Two staunch hard-liners – Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the current head of the assembly, and Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, the spiritual mentor of hard-liners – were not re-elected.

Jannati is also the leader of the Guardian Council, an unelected, constitutional watchdog that vets election candidates.

Leading conservative lawmakers who opposed Iran’s new oil and gas contracts aimed at attracting foreign investment and economic reforms proposed by Mr Rouhani’s government, also lost their seats, according to final results.

“A friendlier parliament will also help Rouhani pursue his policy of constructive engagement with the West without the same degree of hostility he faced in the outgoing parliament”, he said.

Still, the partial results so far indicate the best reformist and moderate showing in more than a decade.

The “list of hope” candidates running in Tehran took all seats except for one.

Iran, an Islamic republic since a 1979 revolution toppled the pro-Western monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, has some institutions and many officials appointed by the supreme leader, but parliament and the Assembly of Experts are elected directly by the people.

Iranian media is banned from mentioning Khatami’s name or publishing his pictures.

Final results in Iran’s legislative elections.

Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Kayhan, a newspaper closely associated with the ayatollah, accused reformists of trying to create what he called an “illusion of a victory“. “People’s vote is limited to the responsibility they have been given in the constitution”, Mr Shariatmadari wrote. Given the central nature of governance in Iran, this can turn out to be an advantage for the Rouhani administration. Against this backdrop, the electoral victory of the Reformist-moderate coalition in Tehran is significant and also carries high political symbolism.

Larijani’s political heft was crucial to the nuclear deal being approved by MPs as he spoke up for Rouhani’s government at key moments during the more than two years of negotiations that led to the accord. So, I felt another group should come and take over the parliament and that new things needed to happen.