Iran poll: Hardliners make early gains
Candidates affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards looked on course to win a parliamentary majority on Saturday, reportedly leading in the race in Tehran and towns and villages elsewhere, after a vote stacked in favour of the antiAmerican hardliners.
An Interior Ministry official said a list of candidates affiliated with the Guards led in the capital. Lists 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. However, 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 linked 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, damaged after nationwide protests in 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 demonstrations, which called 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.
In the latest challenge for Khamenei, Iran announced the detection of 10 new cases of coronavirus, one of whom has died. The new infections bring the cases of new coronavirus in Iran to 28, with five deaths.
Khamenei faces mounting pressure from the US over Iran’s nuclear programme and discontent over mismanagement of the economy is unlikely to ease as sanctions squeeze the Islamic Republic.