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Iranian Parliamentary Elections: Initial Results |
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The BBC is reporting that conservative hardliners are doing well in the released counts of Iran’s parliamentary elections (held yesterday). But there are some subtleties to look for, because there are divisions even amongst the conservatives - especially regarding Ahmedinejad.
Hard-line allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are ahead in Iran’s parliamentary election, partial results suggest.
But conservative critics of Mr Ahmadinejad also appear to be making a strong showing that could undermine his domination of the parliament.
Reformists are said to be struggling after large numbers of their candidates were barred from the race.
The United States says this means the results were “cooked”.
The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports that 144 out of 290 parliamentary seats have been decided so far. Quoting state television, official news agency IRNA and reports from local officials, AP says pro-Ahmadinejad politicians have won 53 seats, reformists 18, and conservative critics of Mr Ahmadinejad 38. Independents whose political leanings were not immediately known claimed the remaining 35, the agency says.
An Iranian official claimed that Friday’s turnout was as high as 65%, the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Tehran reports. But our correspondent says that polling stations in the capital were not busy, and many people said they felt there was nothing or no-one to vote for.
As I pointed out last week, and as the BBC notes above, most of the disenfranchisement in these elections took place before the voting, and came in the form of restricting which candidates could participate. Still, the divisions among conservatives are important because they reflect the jockeying for position that is going on. Ahmedinejad may not survive next year’s presidential elections, and what’s going on right now may be a way of sorting out who his main challengers will be.
The divisions among the conservatives are the most interesting. From what I’ve read, it seems like some of Ahmedinejad’s biggest critics were elected or re-elected. I don’t know if that really signals a shift in Iraqi politics, though. Do you have any links to blog analysis?