In blow to Iran hard-liners, moderates win clerical assembly

Moderate conservatives won 73 seats, giving the two factions together a majority of the parliament’s 290 seats. He made no direct comment on the results but suggested the newly elected bodies should not be influenced by the West.

The parliamentary vote count and seat allocation was continuing.

With sanctions lifted and Western investors beginning to return to Iran, there are high hopes for an improvement in daily life, he says.

Especially European potential investors in Iran won big this weekend. “The independents will play a key role in the next parliament’s decisions”, said political analyst Hamid Farahvashian.

Some 69 constituencies had no clear victor, meaning a second round runoff in April in a field that has more conservatives than reformists and moderates.

The elections do not leave the Rouhani administration with a completely free hand on economic policy.

The final results of that vote were expected for later Monday. And though it’s seen as a historic win for the moderates, several prominent hard-liners, including Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati have also been re-elected.

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

“Based on the votes we have so far it looks like principlists will lose the majority in the next Majlis (parliament) shy of 50%.Reformists gained 30% and independent candidates did better than before, gaining 20%”, said Foad Izadi, an assistant professor at the Faculty of World Studies in Tehran University.

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.

For the first time in nearly two decades, reformists and centrists overcame obstacles in their path to achieve significant advances in two elections – one for the Majles, or parliament, the other for the Assembly of Experts, a powerful representative body. The moderate leader and his allies won 15 out of Tehran’s 16 seats in the election for the Assembly of Experts. Arch-conservative Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi appeared unlikely to win a seat, according to partial results. Some of the top vote-getters were from the list of former president Mohammad Khatami, who is to Rouhani’s left, though still a man of the Khomeinist system of clerical rule or theocracy. More than 450 of those candidates are female, BBC said. “Overall, I think that this will allow the government of the President Rouhani to pursue its reforms and plans more effectively, first of all, of course, in the economy”.

We want to hear from you. “There were lots of embezzlements and mismanagement”.

The deal is expected to bolster moderate allies of President Hassan Rouhani, who championed it in the face of hard-line opposition.

With economic recovery hinging on foreign investment, Rouhani’s government is seeking to pass laws that would attract global oil companies and make doing business in Iran easier for foreigners.

All around the world, people go to polls to endow someone with some authority, but the recent elections in the 37 year-old Islamic Republic were a rare case, as the majority of those voting participated in the elections to block certain persons’ way to power. Experts say the election results are a sign that Iranians support the agreement.

Despite securing the nuclear deal he has faced resistance at home to domestic reform.

“This election can be a turning point in the history of the Islamic Republic”.