Iran’s Parliament speaker Ali Larijani casts his ballot during parliamentary and Experts Assembly elections at a polling station in Qom, 125 kilometers (78 miles) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, Friday, Feb. 26, 2016.
Advertisement
Iranians were voting Friday in parliamentary elections, the country’s first since its landmark nuclear deal with world powers last summer.
He said that government attempts to do its best to protect the legality, safety and transparency of the elections.
Reformists urge high turnout despite barring of candidates.
As Iran’s ultimate authority, Khamenei’s powers outrank those of Rouhani, but the president is looking for gains in parliament to allow him to build on the nuclear deal by bringing improvements at home.
Iranians head to the polls Friday to vote on candidates for two separate institutions: the 290-seat parliament and the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a clerical body empowered to choose or dismiss the country’s… “Millions of Iranians will vote all around the country”, state TV said.
The hard economic conditions could affect turnout, with some voters citing high levels of apathy due to disillusionment with the ruling establishment, which includes self-styled moderates like Rohani.
“I expect the situation of the country to improve through reforms”, Atefeh Yousefi, 38, told AFP while waiting in line at a polling station in Tehran, adding that she regretted boycotting elections in the past. Results for the Assembly of Experts elections are expected to come in within a few days, BBC News reported, while results of the Majlis elections are expected shortly afterwards.
The elections are broadly being fought between two main camps of moderate versus hardline candidates, although there is crossover in that moderate conservatives are also running.
“The economy, I would say, trumps everything else”, said Nancy W. Gallagher, the interim director at the Center for global and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, which has commissioned a series of public opinion polls in Iran since 2006. “People should be observant and vote with open eyes and should vote wisely”, he said after casting his vote.
Earlier, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani said opinion polls and estimates showed the turnout would be between 65 and 75 percent.
Hassan Khomeini, a politically moderate cleric and grandson of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, received a warm welcome from hundreds of cheering onlookers when he arrived to vote at Jamaran, witnesses said.
A month before the election, many pro-reform candidates who might support Rouhani and his more moderate agenda were disqualified from participating.
Mistrust of the West runs deep, and hardliners have sought to weaken Rouhani’s allies by accusing them of ties to Western powers.
Advertisement
The 12-member Guardian Council must approve all new laws and vet all electoral candidates. More than 1,000 candidates are competing for just 30 seats in Tehran alone.
