Iranian moderates win majority in parliament, clerical body

Reform-minded and more moderate candidates swept all 30 parliamentary seats in Tehran, the country’s most heavily populated province, and won 15 of 16 seats on the influential Assembly of Experts, a council that will pick Iran’s next supreme leader, CNN reported.

The large but outdated vehicle sector is one of the most attractive industries to foreign investors, who have flocked to Tehran since global sanctions were lifted in January following Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. The elections are seen as a “humiliating blow” to conservative influence in Iran and a “strong vote of confidence” in moderate President Hassan Rouhani, up for re-election in 2017, according to The Guardian.

Final results showed seats being shared three ways between Rouhani’s reformist and moderate allies, conservatives and independents.

A simultaneous election was held for the Assembly of Experts, a powerful clerical body that appoints Iran’s supreme leader, Iran’s ultimate authority, now Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The assembly’s current chairman, Mohammad Yazdi, on 17th, and arch-conservative, Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, on 19th, appeared unlikely to win a seat, according to partial results.

Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, the spiritual leader of hard-liners and mentor of former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also lost his seat in the assembly.

When Iran’s Guardian Council, a clerical panel that vets political candidates, disqualified thousands of mainly reformists and moderates from running in the elections, supporters of Rouhani’s policies came together under a banner called the “List of Hope” that included a diverse array of ideologies that have not always meshed in the past.

The final vote count in Iran reveals 83 reformists, 78 conservatives, 60 independents and five minority representatives have won their seats in parliament. It also can directly challenge Khamenei’s rule, something it has never done before.

“In economic affairs the next parliament will be much better than the current parliament”, said economist Saeed Leylaz, once an adviser to reformist former President Mohammad Khatami.

However, given the heightened relevance of the upcoming fifth term of the Assembly of Experts – due to the probability of it having to determine the nature of succession for Ayatollah Khamenei – symbolic political capital will be essential. Moderates previously held around 20 seats in the assembly. Both camps, however, remain committed to the ruling system and the role of Islam in public life, meaning the next supreme leader is unlikely to favor radical change.

Reformists have been virtually shut out of politics since losing their parliamentary majority in the 2004 elections. “People’s vote is limited to the responsibility they have been given in the constitution”, Shariatmadari wrote.

“The people showed their power once again and gave more credibility and strength to their elected government”, Kommersant cited Rouhani as saying. Conservatives have won 103 seats, 92 fewer than they had in the outgoing parliament. “The hardliners’ loss of controlling power will help Mr Rouhani and moderate forces to push for economic and political reforms”, it says. Many of the Tehran winners for the assembly are in fact conservatives but reformists were backing them in the hope of blocking hardliners.

Hard-line factions in Iran suffered unexpected defeats in the first major electoral test for President Hassan Rouhani since he struck a nuclear deal, boosting prospects for his outreach to the West and bid to ease social restrictions.