TEHRAN, 15 March 2008 — The turnout in Iran’s parliamentary elections yesterday is set to top 60 percent, far higher than in previous legislative polls, the government spokesman said.
“I predict there will be at least 60 percent participation,” Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters at the Iranian Interior Ministry.
“We hope the result shows a very good turnout which will strengthen the pillars of the Islamic system and will strengthen ties among different power centers of the country so that they can respond to people’s needs,” he added.
Iran’s leaders have emphasized the importance of a massive turnout to ensure there’s no repeat of the slack turnout in the last parliamentary polls in 2004, when only 51.2 percent of the electorate voted. The figure of a 60 percent turnout had also been quoted in an opinion poll carried out by state news agency IRNA.
“So far it has been fantastic and the people have responded to the supreme leader’s (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) call” to vote, Deputy Interior Minister Ali Reza Afshar told state television. “Observers who have monitored several past elections admit that so far we have an election with a more glorious participation and a healthier process.
“If this trend continues, we will have the maximum turnout,” added Afshar, a former top Revolutionary Guards official who is in charge of organizing the elections. He did not give any figures.
The elections are likely to keep Parliament in the grip of conservatives after unelected state bodies barred many reformist foes of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from the race.
But the next assembly may not give Ahmadinejad an easy ride, even if conservatives dominate. They include not just his allies, but critics of his economic policies and politicians looking beyond this election to the presidential poll in 2009.
Reformists favoring more political and social freedom had hoped to capitalize on public discontent about inflation, now at 19 percent. But the vetting process and a government crackdown on dissent have muted their challenge. They may struggle to keep the 40 or so seats they held in the outgoing 290-seat assembly.
Khamenei, who has effectively endorsed Ahmadinejad and his government, cast his ballot early and urged others to do the same.
Khamenei, who usually stays above the political fray, was quoted as saying in newspapers on Thursday that voters should consider “voting for those who can pave the way for the current government which is active and willing to serve.”
His support for Ahmadinejad was relayed by anonymous text messages to mobile phone users yesterday.
Shrugging off reformist complaints that the system was stacked against them, Ahmadinejad said after voting: “Our revolution means the presence of people ... Parliament belongs to people and it should be a reflection of what they want.”
The poll may offer clues on whether Ahmadinejad will win re-election although that may depend more on whether he keeps the support of Khamenei and other parts of the state apparatus.
The president can rely on loyalists like Hassan Siavashi, 45. “It is my religious duty to vote. I pray God will help Ahmadinejad’s group to win,” he said before voting in Tehran.
Reformists say the vote is unfair because so many of their candidates were disqualified. But they have urged Iran’s 44 million eligible voters to deny conservatives an easy victory.
Some of those queuing at the Haft-e-Tir polling station at a Tehran mosque had heeded that argument. “We have to support reformists. If we don’t vote, their opponents will take more seats,” said Mohammad Ziafati, 62, a retired teacher.
Bibi Zahra, an elderly woman in a black chador, said she had put her trust in her son’s choice. “I don’t know who I was voting for, he filled the form for me,” she added.
Conservatives controlled the last Parliament and backed Ahmadinejad when he ran for president in 2005. Many have since blamed his economic policies for fueling inflation.
Khamenei, not Ahmadinejad or Parliament, has the last word on major policy issues such as the international dispute over a nuclear program which the West suspects has a military component. Tehran says it aims only to generate electricity.
Hardliners back Ahmadinejad’s defiant nuclear stance, but reformists and moderate conservatives say his fiery speeches have helped prompt three rounds of UN sanctions against Iran.
