Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called on all eligible Iranian voters to take part in two major elections of the country that kicked off at the early hours of the day.
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There are 290 seats in the Iranian parliament, elected by direct vote of people in nationwide election for four years.
In the simultaneous vote on Friday, Iranians will also select 88 senior religious figures of the assembly of experts, which is tasked with appointing the leader and monitoring his performance.
Rouhani’s success in getting crippling global sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program lifted after years of negotiations is likely to boost moderate candidates.
Supporters of President Hassan Rouhani, who championed Iran’s nuclear deal in January, are battling conservatives who oppose improved relations with Western nations.
Long queues formed at polling stations in the capital and state television showed throngs of voters in Ahvaz and Shiraz.
With ink-stained fingers, Iranians were casting ballots on Friday in the first election since the nuclear deal with world powers.
“We have enemies. Elections should be such that they make the enemy disappointed”.
Rouhani, himself a candidate in the Assembly of Experts election, also addressed journalists after voting, saying he expected an “epic” turnout. “People should be observant and vote with open eyes”.
The current parliament is dominated by conservatives who are wary of Rouhani’s outreach to the West and his calls for less restrictive policies at home. Members serve for eight years.
Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an assembly member, broke a taboo on speaking about the supreme leader’s successor in December when he said that a committee within the assembly has begun putting together a list of possible successors to Khamenei.
The opposition website Kaleme said without elaborating that turnout was higher than in previous elections.
Late Thursday, Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli predicted a turnout of 70 percent.
“Hopefully once we win a majority our first step will be an economic boom in the next parliament”, he said. “They will continue to support the policies that have been adopted leading to the conclusion and successful implementation of the nuclear deal and this will continue”.
Many candidates, both reformist and moderates, have been banned from contesting the elections by Iran’s hardline clerical vetting body.
“Whatever the choice of the Iranian people, it will be respected”, he said.
The 12-member Guardian Council must approve all new laws and vet all electoral candidates, on both technical and ideological grounds.
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Among those disqualified from running for the Assembly of Experts was Hassan Khomeini, a grandson of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Initially, only 30 of the 3,000 would-be reformist candidates for parliament were approved, according to nine reformist parties.
