Reformers Make Gains in Iran VoteBy NAZILA FATHI
Published: March 16, 2008TEHRAN — With about half of the races for Parliament decided 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 a vast majority of the 141 seats that had already been decided. The conservative winners included some critics of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, notably Ali Larijani, the former nuclear negotiator, who resigned over his differences with the president.
The results were announced by Press TV, the official government television network. Voter turnout was 60 percent, compared with 51 percent four years earlier, according to the Interior Ministry.
Analysts expect the new Parliament, including some conservatives, to challenge Mr. Ahmadinejad’s economic policies, especially with presidential elections scheduled for 2009. 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 Mr. Ahmadinejad’s economic policies under control,” said Saeed Leylaz, a political analyst in Tehran. “There won’t be much change on political levels,” he added.
The Iranian Parliament has 290 seats and all were contested in this election. Press TV said Saturday that so far, reformers had won 33 seats to the conservatives’ 108. Counting of votes in most major cities was not completed.
Reformers said they were expecting to win 50 to 70 of the seats in the assembly, which could make them a stronger minority. They control 40 seats in the current Parliament.
The conservative Guardian Council, which evaluates candidates to determine if they are permitted to run, rejected most reformers. The reformers were further hampered because Parliament forbade candidates from printing posters, one of the few ways reformers can get their message out since state media report only on conservatives.
“The important message for us was that it was the right decision not to back down after the mass rejection of prominent reformist candidates and stay in the race,” said Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist politician. “We managed to mess up their plans,” he said, referring to predictions of an easy victory for conservatives.
Reformists voiced fears on Saturday that there might be efforts to rig the results in Tehran because they said their election observers had been expelled.
The results for the 30 seats in Tehran had not been officially announced yet, still the semiofficial and conservative Fars news agency reported 15 seats had been taken by conservatives and 5 by reformists. But the Norooz Web site, which is close to the reformers, said they had won 10 of those 20 seats.
The last 10 seats in Tehran might have to be decided in a runoff in April or May, Fars reported.
Mr. Larijani, the former nuclear negotiator, won his seat in the religious city of Qom with 76 percent of the votes, the state-run television reported. Mr. Larijani’s name appeared on the list that supported Mr. Ahmadinejad, but he is considered much more moderate than Mr. Ahmadinejad.
