Conservatives leading in parliamentary elections
Iran began counting ballots on Saturday after a vote for Parliament and Assembly of Experts, with preliminary results showing that the conservatives are grabbing most of the seats in the Iranian Parliament.
Officials have not yet released the total voter turnout. However, preliminary results from the elections show that 41 percent of eligible voters went to the polls during the Friday elections.
Citing unofficial statistics, Iranian media reported that the rate of participation in the vote for the 12th term of the Iranian Parliament and the 6th term of the Assembly of Experts was over 40 percent.
The polls opened at 8 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) on Friday and the voting began at 59,000 polling stations across the country, with over 15,000 candidates competing for 290 seats in the Iranian Parliament, and 144 candidates vying for positions for the eight-year-term Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body in charge of overseeing the activities of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, with a position of authority to either appoint or dismiss the Leader.
Voting for the two elections ended at midnight local time.
A total of 61.17 million people, comprising 30.94 million men and 30.22 million women, were eligible to vote in the two elections, with the Iranian Interior Ministry saying more than 25 million cast their ballots at the polls.
The voting was initially scheduled to end at 18:00 local time but was extended three times, with each extension lasting for two hours.
In a message on Saturday, President Ebrahim Raisi expressed gratitude to the Iranian people for their remarkable turnout.
Raisi said the enthusiastic and conscious presence of Iranians in Friday’s vote was a “big no” to global arrogance after its historic defeat in last year’s riots, which broke out following the death of a 22-year-old woman in the capital Tehran.
“The ill-wishers of our beloved Iran had mobilized all their power so that the March 1 elections would be held without fervor,” he said.
Candidates for Parliament are vetted by the country’s Constitutional Council. It approved a total of 15,200 candidates, out of nearly 49,000 applicants, to run for seats in Parliament.
A total of 144 candidates were also competing for the Assembly of Experts seats. Former president Hassan Rouhani, a current member of the assembly, was banned from standing again in the election for the Assembly of Experts.
The elections took place amid crippling international sanctions and mounting economic hardship in Iran, where inflation has hovered around 50 percent, and the rial has sharply declined against the dollar.
The problems had caused concern among the country’s officials about the low participation of the people in the elections.
Before the elections, Iranian officials had called on people to participate in the polls.
Iran’s last parliamentary elections in 2020 had a voter turnout of 42.57 percent – the lowest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.