DUBAI- Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and his allies won big gains in elections that could deepen the country’s engagement with the world after his government ended years of sanctions by agreeing to curb its nuclear program.
The outcome shown in the latest results on Monday was a blow to the conservatives who hold the sway on nations parliament.
Most of the lawmakers who did not make it to the new parliament strongly opposed the nuclear deal, including Mehdi Koochakzadeh, who called Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif “a traitor”, and Roohollah Hosseinian, who threatened to bury the negotiators under cement for agreeing to concessions to world powers.
“This election can be a turning point in the history of the Islamic Republic,” said an editorial in reformist newspaper Mardom-Salari, whose managing editor, Mostafa Kavakebian, won a parliamentary seat in Tehran according to the early results.
Rouhani and allied centrists and reformers won 15 out of the 16 Tehran seats in the Assembly of Experts, final election results for Tehran showed, ousting two prominent conservatives including the speaker of the powerful clerical body.
“The biggest achievement of this election is the return of reformists to the ruling system … so they won’t be called seditionists or infiltrators anymore,” he said.
The results, carried on state news agency IRNA, suggest conservatives could lose their dominance of the 88-member body, which is tasked with choosing the next supreme leader, the country’s most powerful position.
The twin polls, for the assembly and parliament, were seen by analysts as a crucial moment for Iran after years of Western imposed sanctions, and a vote of confidence in Rouhani’s government.
KEY CONSERVATIVES OUT
Rouhani’s allies were also due to take all 30 parliamentary seats in the Tehran constituency, according to preliminary results, up from just two previously.
But their gains outside the capital were more limited, with conservatives keeping hold of many seats in both bodies.
Over 35,000,000 eligible voters participated in the twin elections.
The results of the Assembly of Experts vote, which is composed of mostly elder and senior clerics, in Tehran province released by the Interior Ministry show that Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers leader Mohammad Aqa Emami Kashani and President Hassan Rouhani also stand in the second and third places.
Current members of the Assembly, Mohsen Qomi and Mohammad Ali Movahhedi Kermani stand in the fourth to fifth places.
The hardline chairman of the Assembly of Experts, Mohammad Yazdi, lost his seat. So did Mohammad-Ayatollah Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, an arch-conservative who was widely seen as the spiritual mentor to former conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
A prominent exception was Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who squeezed in at 16th place. Jannati is also the chairman of the Guardian Council, a cleric vetting body that disqualified the majority of reformist candidates from running for the elections.
Leading conservative lawmakers who opposed Iran’s new oil and gas contracts aimed at attracting foreign investment and economic reforms proposed by Rouhanis government, also lost their seats, according to final results.
That opens the way for changes to economic policy that will boost foreign investment and trade with the West, businessmen and analysts said.
BOOST FOR TRADE, INVESTMENT
The outgoing parliament had acted as a brake on Rouhani’s plans to strengthen the private sector, tackle corruption and welcome foreign investors.
“In economic affairs the next parliament will be much better than the current parliament,” said economist Saeed Leylaz, once an advisor to reformist former president Mohammad Khatami.
In his first comment since the polls, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei praised the high turnout. He made no direct comment on the results but suggested the newly elected bodies should not be influenced by the West.
Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Kayhan, a newspaper closely associated with conservatives, accused reformists of trying to create what he called an “illusion of a victory”.
“The structure of the Irans ruling system is such that no political faction can change the main policies rooted in its core principles. Peoples vote is limited to the responsibility they have been given in the constitution,” Shariatmadari wrote.
Iran’s political system places significant power in the hands of the Islamic establishment including the Guardian Council, which vets all laws passed by parliament.
A Reuters tally of official results published so far suggested a strong showing by the pro-Rouhani camp and independents. Reformists had 58 seats, conservatives 105, and independents 46, results showed, excluding Tehran where results remain preliminary.
Analysts say the large number of independents may be significant as they could cooperate across ideological lines with Rouhani’s government. There will have to be run-off contests for 34 seats in late April because no one won the required 25 percent of votes cast. More than a dozen of the initial winners in those contests were women.
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