TEHRAN, 22 February 2004 — Iranian hard-liners rolled yesterday toward a solid victory in parliamentary elections, sweeping out depleted pro-democracy forces.
But as results trickled in from Friday’s elections, there was no official word on whether the conservatives had rallied enough of Iran’s 46.3 million eligible voters to make their triumph credible.
The conservative Guardian Council hailed what it called a “strong turnout” and massive popular support for the hard-liners, but early results pointed to a participation level well off the 67 percent recorded in 2000.
A top member of Iran’s main reformist party conceded defeat, saying the forces that controlled three-quarters of the outgoing 290-member Majlis, or Parliament, would retain no more than 60 to 100 seats.
But Mostafa Tajzadeh, of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, insisted the conservatives had just 15 percent backing throughout Iran and had stacked the election in advance by disqualifying most reformist candidates.
“If free elections had been held, we would have won a majority with 200 seats,” he said. “We have to consolidate our role in society. We think we will be quick to come back.”
Results released by the Interior Ministry showed the reformists struggling while conservatives, hard-liners and independents — a ticket under which many right-wingers are standing — were far ahead. Ministry figures showed conservatives had won at least 55 of the first 106 seats declared, out of 289 contested.
Definitive results were not expected before today in Iran’s seventh parliamentary elections since the revolution 25 years ago.
Attention was focused on the turnout. State radio and television announced a 60 percent turnout. The Interior Ministry issued no overall figure but a senior government official said between 20 and 22 million of the 46 million eligible voters had cast ballots.
That would put the turnout at between 43 and 48 percent, sharply down on the 67 percent who voted in 2000, when Khatami’s reformist allies won two thirds of the seats, but more than the 40 percent or less that reformists had predicted.
The conservatives were set to add the Parliament to the list of political and security institutions under their control, and to further isolate the embattled reformist president, Mohammad Khatami.
The Guardian Council said the vote had transformed the Parliament into a “powerful and efficient” body that “would be guided by spirituality.”
