Rouhani’s allies took all 30 parliamentary seats in Tehran, though their gains outside the capital were more limited, with conservatives keeping many seats in both bodies.
Advertisement
Besides, setting the stage for the next 10 years of the political landscape in Iran, it’s also critical because if things go as planned for the reformists, Iran’s conservative-dominated Majlis, or parliament, could actually be replaced by reformist-leaning MPs. After criticizing the disqualifications, he has held his tongue and tried to make the most of a bad situation, encouraging Iranians to vote nonetheless.
“The auto making industry in Iran must be fully privatized”, ILNA news agency quoted Rouhani as saying at a conference on the automotive industry in Tehran. The moderate leader and his allies won 15 out of Tehran’s 16 seats in the election for the Assembly of Experts.
The declaration for the capital came with more than 90 percent of votes counted, but the outcome from Friday’s polling was mixed elsewhere.
Two of three ayatollahs that the pro-Rouhani list had urged voters to reject – Ahmad Jannati, Mohammad Yazdi and Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi – were set to lose their seats, according to initial results.
The most dramatic change, however, was the resurgence of the reformists, a political camp largely silenced after a disputed election in 2009 saw Ahmadinejad re-elected. Combined, that gives them a majority in the country’s 290-seat parliament.
Reformists stayed away from parliamentary elections four years ago in protest at Ahmadinejad’s earlier victory, with defeated candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who remain under house arrest, alleging the vote was rigged. Among the winning candidates were Ali Motahari and Kazem Jalali, who support the nuclear deal but are outspoken conservatives on social issues. Religious minorities claimed five seats, and 59 seats are subject to a runoff, AP said.
Some 69 constituencies had no clear victor, meaning a second round run-off will be needed in a field that has more conservatives than reformists and moderates.
The election, held Friday, had been widely framed as a referendum on the country’s nuclear deal, a diplomatic effort that had been opposed by Iran’s more conservative contingents. Acutely aware of the public’s shifting mood and tacit approval of openness toward the West, they are likely to support him again. In this vein, it should be noted that it would be shortsighted to believe that the establishment of a Leadership Council would by default lead to a decentralization of power in the Iranian political system.
Rafsanjani has strongly supported Rouhani’s diplomatic engagement on the nuclear talks, which included direct negotiations with the United States, the Islamic republic’s bete noire since the 1979 revolution in Tehran.
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on the winners of the elections to act in the interests of Iran and reject the influence of others. The conservative bloc is not monolithic, however: it also has radicals (or ultra-conservatives) and moderates.
The elections were seen as a crucial indicator of the future direction Iranians want for their country, 37 years after revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini founded the Islamic republic.
Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said turnout was 62 percent.
Advertisement
Elias Hazrati, a newly-elected reformist deputy, told euronews: “Even though a big majority of well-known reformers were not able to stand or were disqualified, they’ve shown that they’re flexible and able to adapt to the situation and propose new faces”.
