Millions of Iranians yesterday voted in high-stakes elections that could shift the balance of power within the hardline-controlled elite by ushering in a reformist comeback or help conservatives tighten their grip on power.
The contest is seen by some analysts as a make-or-break moment that could shape the future for the next generation, in a country where nearly 60 percent of its population of 80 million is under 30.
There were early signs of enthusiastic participation in the first polls since a nuclear deal last year led to a lifting of sanctions and deeper diplomatic engagement abroad.
Long lines formed at polling stations in the capital and state TV showed throngs of voters in Ahvaz and Shiraz. It was unclear how the turnout might shape the outcome.
“Whoever likes Iran and its dignity, greatness and glory should vote. Iran has enemies. They are eyeing us greedily,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said after casting his ballot, in a reference to Western powers.
“Turnout in the elections should be so high to disappoint our enemies... People should be observant and vote with open eyes and should vote wisely,” he said.
At stake are the 290-seat parliament and the 88-member Assembly of Experts, the body that has the power to appoint and dismiss the supreme leader, Iran’s most powerful figure. Both are currently in the hands of hardliners.
During its next eight-year term the assembly could name the successor to Khamenei, who is 76 and has been in power since 1989.
Control of parliament would influence the ability of moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, constrained so far, to deliver on his promises of greater freedoms and economic reforms — as well as his own chances of re-election next year.
The Iranian Guardian Council, appointed half by Khamenei and half by the ultra-conservative judiciary, disqualified thousands of candidates for the legislature and vetoed 80 percent of those seeking election to the Assembly of Experts. That included Hassan Khomeini, the moderate grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s 1979 revolution and Khamenei’s predecessor.
Supporters of Rouhani, who championed the nuclear deal and is likely to seek a second presidential term, are pitted against hardliners deeply opposed to detente with the West.
Rouhani said the government would spare no effort to protect people’s votes and ensure healthy and legitimate elections, the official IRNA news agency reported.
While reformists saw a high turnout as an opportunity for change, conservatives said it showed widespread popular support for the Islamic Republic’s political system — and perhaps by extension the “status quo.”
“To participate in the elections is to sign up to the country’s ruling system,” said Mohammad Yazdi, a conservative cleric who chairs the Assembly of Experts.
“When the Westerners see millions turn out, it’s obvious their calculations will fall apart,” judiciary spokesman and prominent hardline cleric Gholam Hussein Mohseni Ejei was quoted as saying by Fars News. “They will discover that this population will no longer be dominated, influenced or oppressed by the enemy.”
The opposition Web site Kaleme reported that opposition cleric Mehdi Karoubi cast a ballot for the first time since being put under house arrest in 2011, in a gesture that might boost reformist candidates close to Rouhani.
A mobile ballot box was taken to his home, where he has been confined for five years. Karoubi and fellow reformist Mirhossein Mousavi, both in their 70s, ran for election in June 2009. They became figureheads for many Iranians, who protested against a contest they believed was rigged to bring back former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the official winner.
The Iranian Ministry of the Interior on Wednesday said that all Iranians would be able to vote in the elections.
Influential former Iranian president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, allied to Rouhani, said Iranians knew this was a day of destiny, comparing it to Laylat al-Qadr, the “night of destiny” in which Muslims believe the first verses of the Koran were revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.
Asked what would happen if reformists did not win, he told reporters: “It will be a major loss for the Iranian nation.”
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