- Top Iran conservatives lose seats on key supervisory body
TEHRAN, February 29: Partial results released Monday indicate that Iranian reformists will win all 30 parliamentary seats in Tehran, handing hard-liners an embarrassing defeat in the first elections held since last year’s nuclear deal.
The deal is expected to bolster moderate allies of President Hassan Rouhani, who championed it in the face of hard-line opposition. However, none of Iran’s three main political camps reformists, conservatives or hard-liners is expected to win a majority in the 290-seat assembly.
Two leading conservative clerics, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi and Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, have lost their seats on Iran’s top supervisory body, results from last week’s election confirmed on Monday.
The reformist alliance formed in support of moderate President Hassan Rouhani had campaigned against both Yazdi, the outgoing chairman of the Assembly of Experts and Mesbah-Yazdi, an outspoken opponent of the reformists.
But a third conservative, Ahmad Jannati, who had been targeted by the pro-Rouhani coalition, narrowly kept his seat on the assembly, a powerful committee which oversees the work of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, state television reported.
State TV said that the reformists who favor expanding social freedoms and improving relations with the West are set to win all of Tehran’s seats. It said 62 percent of the capital’s votes have been counted.
Tehran is seen as a political bellwether where prominent members of all three camps face off against each other. Across the country, the reformist camp is on track for its best showing in more than a decade.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the high turnout in elections, in his first comment since Friday’s contests, Iranian media reported.
“I thank Iran’s wise and determined nation and I hope the next parliament will act responsibly towards people and God,” Khamenei said in a statement. He made no direct comment on the result of the vote.
Friday’s election was the first since last summer’s nuclear deal, which brought about the lifting of crippling international sanctions on Iran in exchange for it curbing its nuclear activities.
Reformists and moderate conservatives who supported the agreement appear poised to win a majority, which could pave the way for increased economic openness and greater cooperation with the West on regional issues like the war against ISIS.
Reformists currently hold fewer than 20 seats and have been virtually shut out of politics since losing their parliamentary majority in the 2004 elections. Online
