Conservatives win bulk of Iranian vote as expected

Iranians shop in Tadjrish bazar in northern Tehran on Saturday, a few days before the Persian new year, or Noruz, which starts on Thursday. Iranian conservatives were poised to win a two-thirds parliamentary majority but with reformists retaining a foothold despite losing hundreds of candidates to pre-election vetting. PHOTO: AFP

With about half of the races for the Iranian parliament decided on Saturday, more than 30 reformers appear to have won seats although most of their most prominent members had been barred from running by the country's conservative establishment.

Religious conservatives, as expected, took most of the 170 seats that had already been decided. The conservative winners included some critics of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, notably Ali Larijani, the former nuclear negotiator, who resigned over his differences with the president.

Most of those critics oppose Ahmadinejad's economic policies, rather than his politics.

All of the Iranian parliament's 290 seats were contested in this election. Fars, the semiofficial news agency, reported that out of 170 seats that had been decided, 125 went to the conservatives, 35 to the reformers and 10 to independents.

Reformers said they were expecting to win 50 to 70 of the seats in the assembly. They control 40 seats in the current parliament.

Voter turnout was 60 percent, compared with 51 percent four years earlier, the Interior Ministry said. Analysts expect the new parliament, including some conservatives, to challenge Ahmadinejad's economic policies in advance of next year's presidential elections. He is expected to run for re-election. His policies, including a heavy reliance on oil revenue, are widely blamed for a jump in inflation to nearly 18 percent.

"The most important change in the new parliament would be its efforts to bring Ahmadinejad's economic policies under control," said Saeed Leylaz, a political analyst in Tehran. "There won't be much change on political levels."

The Iranian parliament has 290 seats and all were contested in this election. The conservative Guardian Council, which evaluates candidates, rejected most reformers. The reformers were further hampered because parliament forbade them from printing posters, one of the few ways reformers can get their message out since state news media report only on conservatives.