DUBAI • Candidates affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards looked on course to win a parliamentary majority yesterday, reportedly leading the race in Teheran and in towns and villages elsewhere, after a vote stacked in favour of the anti-American hardliners.
An Interior Ministry official said a list of candidates affiliated with the Guards led the race in the capital. Candidates linked to hardliners captured 83 seats in towns and villages across the country following Friday’s vote, according to a Reuters tally.
A clean sweep for hardliners would confirm the political demise of the country’s pragmatist politicians, weakened by Washington’s decision to quit a 2015 nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions in a move that stifled rapprochement with the West.
But the Iranian authorities have yet to announce the turnout in the race for the 290-seat legislature – a litmus test of the popularity of hardliners closely associated with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s rulers, under intense US pressure over the country’s nuclear programme, need a high turnout to boost their legitimacy, which was damaged after nationwide protests last November.
Such a result would help the Guards, already omnipresent in Iranians’ daily lives, to increase their substantial influence in political, social and economic affairs.
The protests, calling for regime change, were met with a violent crackdown overseen by the Guards which killed hundreds and led to the arrest of thousands, according to human rights organisations.
Iranians long for stability after a succession of political and economic crises. Mr Khamenei faces mounting pressure from the United States over Iran’s nuclear programme, and discontent over mismanagement of the economy is unlikely to ease as sanctions squeeze the Islamic republic.
US President Donald Trump raised the stakes in his stand-off with Teheran when top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike at Baghdad airport last month.
Mr Abbasali Kadkhodai, a spokesman for watchdog Guardian Council, predicted that the turnout would be around 50 per cent, telling state television on Friday that the Iranian nation had disappointed its enemies by voting in large numbers.
Turnout was 62 per cent in the 2016 parliamentary vote and 66 per cent of the people voted in 2012.
Iran’s rulers, under intense US pressure over the country’s nuclear programme, need a high turnout to boost their legitimacy, which was damaged after nationwide protests last November.
Such a result would help the Guards, already omnipresent in Iranians’ daily lives, to increase their substantial influence in political, social and economic affairs.
Large gains in Friday’s vote may also hand hardliners another bonus – more leeway to campaign for the 2021 contest for president, a job with wide day-to-day control of government.
Parliamentary elections have little impact on Iran’s foreign or nuclear policies, which are set by Mr Khamenei, and major pro-reform parties have been either banned or dismantled since 2009.
REUTERS