REPORT: Iran reformists cheer election gains, conservatives play down shift

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29-02-2016 | 03:14
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REPORT: Iran reformists cheer election gains, conservatives play down shift
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2min
REPORT: Iran reformists cheer election gains, conservatives play down shift

President Hassan Rouhani and his allies won big gains in elections that could deepen Iran's engagement with the world after his government ended years of sanctions by agreeing to curb its nuclear program.

 

The outcome in the results for Tehran on Monday was a blow to the conservative Islamic establishment, although it retains decisive power due to Iran's unwieldy dual system of clerical and republican rule.

 

Most of the lawmakers who failed to win re-election to the new parliament strongly opposed the nuclear deal, including Mehdi Kouchakzadeh, who called Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a traitor, and Rouhollah Hosseinian, who threatened to bury the negotiators under cement for agreeing to concessions to world powers.

 

Rouhani and allied centrists and moderates won 15 out of the 16 Tehran seats in the 88-member Assembly of Experts, which is tasked with choosing the country's next supreme leader, final election results for Tehran showed. Some of the 15 elected in Tehran were in both conservative and reformist electoral lists.

 

Two prominent conservatives, including the speaker of the powerful clerical body, were among those ousted in the capital.

 

Candidates on the reformist list also took all 30 parliamentary seats in the Tehran constituency, up from just two previously, final results released by Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli showed.

 

Beyond the capital, their gains were more limited, with conservatives keeping hold of many seats in both bodies.

 

The twin polls, for the assembly and parliament, were seen by analysts as a crucial moment for Iran after years of isolation, and a vote of confidence in Rouhani's government and his detente policy with the West.

 

 
REUTERS

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