Iran extends voting again due to high turnout

[montelatici]

Doesn't look too good for the conservatives.

"Iran announced a second extension of voting due to high turnout in elections on Friday for parliament and a leadership body known as the Assembly of Experts."



Iran extends voting again due to high turnout: State TV

 

[Penelope]

Doesn't look too good for the conservatives.

"Iran announced a second extension of voting due to high turnout in elections on Friday for parliament and a leadership body known as the Assembly of Experts."



Iran extends voting again due to high turnout: State TV

I agree, looks like even woman can vote there, and the GOP want to rip up the nuke deal, crazy beyond all hope.

 

[montelatici]

450+ women are also candidates for parliamentary seats.

 

[waltky]

Early gains for reformists in Iran poll...

Iran election: Early results suggest gains for reformists
Sat, 27 Feb 2016 - Early results from crucial elections in Iran suggest that reformists, including President Hassan Rouhani, are ahead.

Moderates and reformists in Iran, including President Hassan Rouhani, are ahead of conservatives after crucial elections on Friday, early results say. Mr Rouhani and a former President, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, lead the race for the 88-member Assembly of Experts, which appoints Iran's Supreme Leader. In parliament, reformists are on course to win almost all of Tehran's 30 seats, a major boost for the president. The election was the first since a nuclear deal with world powers. The outcome could affect Mr Rouhani's chances of re-election in 2017.

The twin vote was to elect the 290-seat parliament as well as the Assembly of Experts. The assembly might end up choosing a successor to Ayatollah Khamenei, who is 76 and has suffered ill-health. Early results gave Mr Rafsanjani, a moderate Conservative, and Mr Rouhani respectively the most votes for the assembly, which is composed of mostly elder and senior clerics. By contrast, the leading candidate of Islamic hardliners, Ayatollah Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, was hovering near the bottom of the list.

'Competition is over'

For parliament, former Vice-President Mohammad Reza Araf was topping the list for the capital with almost half the votes counted there. The only conservative so far was former parliament speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel, in seventh place. The result is significant because lawmakers from the capital usually determine the political direction of the house, analysts say. However they add that the picture may be more mixed in smaller towns across the country.

Mr Rouhani said the election gave the government more credibility and clout. "The competition is over. It's time to open a new chapter in Iran's economic development based on domestic abilities and international opportunities," the official Irna news agency quoted him as saying. "The people showed their power once again and gave more credibility and strength to their elected government."

Voting was extended three times on Friday as crowds reportedly flocked to polling stations. Turnout was more than 60%. Reformists, who want better relations with the outside world and more freedoms at home, are hoping to gain influence in the conservative-dominated bodies. But of 12,000 people who registered as candidates, only half were allowed to stand, including just 200 moderates.

Economy 'key issue'

See also:

Early election results point to gains by Iranian moderates
Feb 27,`16 -- Partial election results in Iran on Saturday point 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 in 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 is on track for its best showing in more than a decade.

Iranian journalists follow the preliminary results of parliamentary and Experts Assembly elections at the Interior Ministry, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016. Preliminary results early Saturday morning showed reformist candidates heading for their best showing in more than a decade in Iranian parliamentary elections, according to local media and election officials counting the ballots. A strong reformist showing would be a boost for moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who championed the newly implemented Iranian nuclear deal with world powers in the face of harsh hard-line opposition.​

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 among the 30 front-runners and just one hard-liner. 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. Some 1.3 million ballots have 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.

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[waltky]

Moderate reformers secured surprise gains in parliament...

Iranian elections garner 60% turnout
Sun, Feb 28, 2016 - REFERENDUM: The key election is widely seen as a litmus test of public opinion on the administration of President Hassan Rouhani after a historic US-led nuclear deal

About 60 percent of voters cast ballots in Iran’s elections after polling stations were kept open to allow millions of latecomers to participate, the Iranian Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Coming just a month after sanctions were lifted under Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, the outcome of Friday’s vote is being seen as a de facto referendum on Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s government. A political moderate, Rouhani is hoping an alliance with reformists can eliminate or at least curtail conservative dominance of parliament, giving him a chance of passing social and political reforms.

Women cast their ballots in elections for the Iranian parliament and the Assembly of Experts at a polling station in Qom, Iran​

At least 33 million out of 55 million eligible voters took part in polls for the parliament and the Iranian Assembly of Experts — a powerful clerical body that appoints the country’s supreme leader — ministry spokesman Hossein-Ali Amiri told state TV. “The numbers will increase” as not all ballots have been counted, Amiri added. A second round is to be organized in a number of cities for seats where no candidate received more than 25 percent of votes, he said, without providing further details. Results must be confirmed by the conservative-dominated Iranian Guardian Council — charged with monitoring the vote — and are not expected for several days.

As well as 290 lawmakers, voters were also selecting the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member committee of clerics responsible for monitoring the work of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Lawmakers are elected for four years, but the assembly has an eight-year term. Should Khamenei, who is 76, die during that time, its members would choose his replacement. The first results are expected to come from the provinces, but the vote tally in the capital, which has a population of 12 million and was electing 30 lawmakers, is to take about three days. Khamenei, who is the nation’s ultimate authority, was among the first to vote and he urged the country’s 55-million-strong electorate to follow suit, as “it’s both a duty and a right.”

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See also:

Iran's pragmatic Rouhani cheers election wins, says government stronger
Sun Feb 28, 2016 - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani won an emphatic vote of confidence and reformist partners secured surprise gains in parliament in early results from elections that could accelerate the Islamic Republic's emergence from years of isolation.

While gains by moderates and reformists in Friday's polls were most evident in the capital, Tehran, the sheer scale of the advances there suggests a legislature more friendly to the pragmatist Rouhani has emerged as a distinct possibility. A loosening of control by the anti-Western hardliners who currently dominate the 290-seat parliament could strengthen his hand to open Iran further to foreign trade and investment following last year's breakthrough nuclear deal. A reformist-backed list of candidates aligned with Rouhani was on course to win all 30 parliamentary seats in Tehran, initial results released on Sunday showed. Top conservative candidate Gholamali Haddad Adel was set to lose his seat. "The people showed their power once again and gave more credibility and strength to their elected government," Rouhani said, adding he would work with anyone who won election to build a future for the industrialized, oil-exporting country.

The polls were seen by analysts as a potential turning point for Iran, where nearly 60 percent of its 80 million population is under 30 and eager to engage with the world following the lifting of most sanctions. "Based on the votes that we have so far it looks like the principlists will lose the majority in the next Majlis (parliament) shy of 50 percent. The reformists gained 30 percent and independent candidates did better than before, gaining 20 percent," said Foad Izadi, an assistant professor at the Faculty of World Studies in Tehran University.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani waves after casting his vote during elections for the parliament and Assembly of Experts, which has the power to appoint and dismiss the supreme leader, in Tehran February 26, 2016.​

Principlists, otherwise known as hardliners, hold 65 percent of the outgoing parliament and the rest is divided between reformists and independents who traditionally support Rouhani. Izadi said the reformists' strong lead was prompted by Rouhani's success in reaching a nuclear agreement between Iran and international powers, the removal of most of the punitive sanctions that had strangled the country's economy over the past decade and restoration of relations with the West. "It is a sweeping victory for Tehran but for other cities it is not yet clear cut. It is beyond expectations," he added.

Etemad, a reformist newspaper whose managing-editor Elias Hazrati won a seat in Tehran, has chosen the first headline of “clean up in the parliament.” "The next parliament will be like no other parliament in the history of Iran as no political faction will have the absolute say," the newspaper said on its front-page. Millions crowded polling stations on Friday to vote for parliament and the Assembly of Experts, which selects the country's highest authority, the supreme leader. Both bodies have been in the hands of hardliners for years. Supporters of Rouhani, who promoted the nuclear deal, were pitted against hardliners close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who are wary of detente with Western countries.

ACUMEN

 

[waltky]

Iran reformists win all Tehran seats...

Iran election: Reformists win all 30 Tehran seats
Sun, 28 Feb 2016 - Allies of Iran's reformist President Hassan Rouhani win a landslide victory in Tehran, in the first elections since the nuclear deal with world powers.

Allies of Iran's reformist President Hassan Rouhani have won a landslide victory in Tehran, in the first parliamentary vote since Iran signed a nuclear deal with world powers. With 90% of the votes counted, the pro-Rouhani List of Hope is set to take all 30 parliamentary seats in the capital. The leading conservative candidate Gholamali Haddad-Adel is in 31st place. Millions voted on Friday to elect the 290-seat parliament as well as members of the Assembly of Experts.

The 88-member assembly appoints Iran's Supreme Leader and might end up choosing a successor to Ayatollah Khamenei, who is 76 and has suffered ill-health. Early results gave former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate conservative, and Mr Rouhani the most votes for the assembly, which is composed of mostly elder and senior clerics.

Analysis: Lyse Doucet, BBC News international correspondent

This stunning election result will make a difference in Iran's engagement with the wider world. President Rouhani's hand has been strengthened in parliament to help open his country to greater trade and investment. That will help him, and others in his reformist camp, to deepen the dialogue with the West, which began with negotiations on a landmark nuclear deal. But much of this opening will continue to be with Europe, rather than the US. Iran's relationship with America is still complex and controversial.

Iran's ambitions in the region are also deeply rooted - it has strategic interests in countries like Syria, Iraq and Lebanon as well as Afghanistan, and a strong sense of its right to remain engaged. These are areas where Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and its conservative Supreme leader hold sway. But Iran wants to be regarded as an equal partner, able to sit at the world's top tables to work on common threats like the so-called Islamic State. President Rouhani's team may now feel empowered to engage a bit more, more often.

What is the Assembly of Experts?

Iranian reformists winning all capital seats in parliament
Feb 28,`16 -- Iranian reformists appear have won all 30 seats representing the nation's capital in parliament, a definitive rebuke to the hard-liners opposing President Hassan Rouhani's efforts to increase economic openness and cooperate with the West.

In the first elections held since last year's nuclear deal, none of Iran's three main political camps - reformists, conservatives and hard-liners - is expected to win an outright majority, but early results indicate the best reformist showing in the 290-seat parliament in more than a decade. Moderate conservatives also gained seats, and if their tentative coalition with the reformists holds, they could end the domination of parliament by hard-liners opposed to the nuclear deal. The reformist gains reflect strong public support for the agreement's promise of more economic opportunities now that the West has dropped crippling sanctions in exchange for limiting the nation's nuclear program.

An Iranian man rides a decorated bicycle in Imam Hussein Square, central Tehran, Iran​

State television said Friday's vote heralds "the end of the presence of a powerful majority in the parliament that overshadowed decision-making apparatus in the country over the past decade." Rouhani thanked voters Saturday night in a message that encouraged Iranians to help him end the nation's isolation. "The competition has ended. Now it is time to open a new way through unity between people and the government to have a new chapter in growth of the national economy by using domestic strength and foreign opportunities," he said. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, called the vote "proof of democracy" at work in Iran.

But Khamenei also addressed hard-line concerns that greater integration with the West could undermine Iranian independence and morality. He urged the next parliament, which begins its work in May, to remain vigilant against "foreign intervention" and warned that democratic progress does not mean "integration into the global arrogance." The Interior Ministry is expected to release final results on Monday. Provincial reports suggest that of the first 185 districts reporting, 55 have gone to reformists, 66 to moderate conservatives and 64 to hard-liners.

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