The conservatives claimed on Sunday February 23 the victory in the legislative elections of Friday in Iran. The ballot was marked by a strong abstention against a background of popular resentment against moderate President Hassan Rohani in the context of a serious economic crisis.
The interior ministry released results for more than 95 percent of constituencies in the afternoon, giving the names of deputies elected in the first round, without specifying their political affiliation. These results reflect an unquestionable victory for "Principalistes", an appellation that brings together all the tendencies of the conservative camp, up to the most ultra, according to several media of this movement.
Nationwide, turnout reached 42.57%, Interior Minister Abdolréza Rahmani Fazli announced, the lowest level recorded for legislative elections since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Many observers had predicted a large abstention after the mass disqualification by the electoral body of reformist and moderate candidates, practically reducing the ballot to a competition between conservatives and ultra-conservatives. The unicameral Parliament has 290 seats. Seventeen women are already elected, as many as in the outgoing parliament, and another has qualified for the second round. According to FARS, this, scheduled for April 17, should take place in at least 11 constituencies.
"New slap to Trump"
President Rohani is under fire from critics of the conservative camp for his policy of openness symbolized by the international Iranian nuclear agreement concluded in Vienna in 2015. But the decision of the President of the United States Donald Trump to denounce this pact and to re-impose sanctions on Tehran was followed, in Iran, by a violent recession from which the country is struggling to emerge. "Victory of anti-American candidates, new slap to Trump", headlined the ultra-conservative daily on Sunday morning Keyhan, for who "The people have disqualified the reformers".
Friday's poll was held two days after the announcement of the new coronavirus in Iran, where according to the latest official figures, the Covid-19 epidemic has killed eight people out of a total of 43 people infected.
"We held these elections when there were various incidents in the country", said Minister Rahmani Fazli, and under these conditions, "The participation rate seems perfectly acceptable to us". "We had bad weather conditions, there was this coronavirus disease, there was the fall of this plane, also the incidents of January and November", he justified. The minister made reference to the Ukrainian airliner shot down by the Iranian armed forces near Tehran in early January and to the anti-power demonstrations that this drama caused, less than two months after a wave of protests triggered by the rise in the price of petrol.
According to his official website, the Iranian supreme guide praised "The massive participation of the population in the elections"accusing the foreign press of having done everything to "Discourage people from going to vote". "The propaganda started a few months ago and intensified in the run-up to the elections and (especially) the last two days (before the election) using the pretext of this disease"Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during his weekly class to theology students in Tehran.
