Rouhani wins big in Tehran as Iran goes to the polls
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IRANIAN President Hassan Rouhani won an emphatic vote of confidence and reformist partners secured surprise gains in parliament in early results from elections.
While gains by moderates and reformists in Friday’s polls were most evident in the capital, Tehran, the sheer scale of the advances there suggests a legislature more friendly to the pragmatist Rouhani has emerged as a distinct possibility.
A loosening of control by the anti-Western hardliners who currently dominate the 290-seat parliament could strengthen his hand to open Iran further to foreign trade and investment following last year’s breakthrough nuclear deal.
A reformist-backed list of candidates aligned with Rouhani was on course to win all 30 parliamentary seats in Tehran, according to initial results released yesterday. Top conservative candidate Gholamali Haddad Adel was set to lose his seat.
“The people showed their power once again and gave more credibility and strength to their elected government,” Rouhani said, adding he will work with anyone who wins to build a future for the industrialized, oil-exporting country.
The polls were seen by analysts as a potential turning point for Iran, where nearly 60 percent of its 80 million population is under 30 and eager to engage with the world following the lifting of most sanctions.
“Based on the votes that we have so far it looks like the principlists will lose the majority in the next Majlis (parliament) shy of 50 percent. The reformists gained 30 percent and independent candidates did better than before, gaining 20 percent,” said Foad Izadi, an assistant professor at the Faculty of World Studies in Tehran University.
Principlists, otherwise known as hardliners, hold 65 percent of the outgoing parliament and the rest is divided between reformists and independents who traditionally support Rouhani.
Izadi said the reformists’ strong lead was prompted by Rouhani’s success in reaching a nuclear agreement between Iran and international powers, the removal of most of the punitive sanctions that had strangled the country’s economy over the past decade and restoration of relations with the West.
“It is a sweeping victory for Tehran but for other cities it is not yet clear cut. It is beyond expectations,” he said.
Etemad, a reformist newspaper whose managing-editor Elias Hazrati won a seat in Tehran, has chosen the first headline of “clean up in the parliament.”
“The next parliament will be like no other parliament in the history of Iran as no political faction will have the absolute say,” the newspaper said on its front-page.
A Reuters tally, based on available results, suggested the pro-Rouhani camp and allied independents were leading in the parliamentary vote. Some moderate conservatives, including current speaker Ali Larijani, support Rouhani.
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