Early election results from Iran show moderates gaining

TEHRAN, Iran — Partial election results in Iran on Saturday pointed to major gains by reformists and moderates who favor expanding freedoms and engaging with the West and who defended the recently implemented nuclear deal with world powers against opposition from hard-liners.

Friday’s election was the first since last summer’s agreement was finalized, lifting international economic sanctions in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program. U.S. officials had hoped the deal would strengthen President Hassan Rouhani and other moderates, paving the way for greater cooperation on other regional issues.

Reports from the semi-official Fars and Mehr news agencies showed hard-liners losing ground in the 290-seat legislature. None of Iran’s three main political camps — reformist, conservative and hard-line — was expected to capture a majority, but the reformist camp was on track for its best showing in more than a decade.

Reformist candidates were set for major gains in Tehran, which sends 30 representatives to the chamber and is seen as a political bellwether. Partial results released by the government showed 26 reformists and one hard-liner among the 30 front-runners.

Mohammad Reza Aref, the most prominent reformist candidate, was at the top of the list, and the sole hard-liner, Gholamali Haddad Adel, was 10th.

About 1.3 million ballots had been counted in Tehran, where turnout is expected to exceed the 2.6 million who voted in 2012.

Partial results from Tehran showed moderates also gaining ground in the 88-member Assembly of Experts, which will select the successor to 76-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s top decision-maker since 1989.

Rouhani and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a relative moderate, led in Tehran, which will send 16 candidates to the assembly, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Just two hard-liners are currently among the 16. The current assembly has six hard-liners from Tehran.

IRNA initially reported the Assembly of Experts results as final, but later both IRNA and state TV said they were based on a partial tally.

Both Rouhani and Rafsanjani currently sit in the assembly, which is elected every eight years and at present includes around 20 moderates.

There were no immediate results from other constituencies, and vote-counting was still underway.

The final results from the elections are expected Monday.

In a statement, Rouhani thanked Iranians for taking part in the election and urged unity, calling for a “new chapter in the growth of the national economy by using domestic strength and foreign opportunities,” referring to Iran’s openness to foreign investment now that sanctions linked to its nuclear program have been lifted.

Nearly 55 million of Iran’s 80 million people were eligible to vote. Participation figures were not immediately available, but Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli on Saturday said turnout likely exceeded 60 percent based on the partial counting of the votes.

Polls closed at midnight Friday, and officials immediately began counting the ballots.