Iranian conservatives strengthen hold in parliamentary vote

Iran’s conservatives and ultra-conservatives secured additional seats in the rerun of part of the country’s parliamentary elections, thereby consolidating their control over the legislature, according to official results. This partial election, held on a Friday, involved regions where no candidates achieved a sufficient number of votes during the initial March 1st polls, which recorded a historic low turnout of 41 percent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The rerun involved 45 seats and took place across 15 of Iran’s 31 provinces, with conservative and ultra-conservative candidates winning the majority, as reported by local media.

This election marked the country’s first fully electronic voting in selected constituencies, including eight in Tehran and in the cities of Tabriz and Shiraz, as reported by state TV.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi noted that turnout in reruns is typically lower than in the initial voting rounds, though he did not provide specific figures for this latest round. He countered some expectations by noting that all candidates received a relatively good number of votes.

The new parliament members are scheduled to select a speaker when they convene on May 27.

During the initial voting in March, about 25 million of the 61 million eligible voters participated. The Reform Front, a major coalition of reformist parties, declared prior to the first round that it would not engage in what it deemed to be meaningless, non-competitive, and ineffective elections.

These elections were the first since the national protests that erupted after the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd detained for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women. Previously, the turnout was above 61 percent in the 2016 elections but dropped to 42.57 percent in 2020, coinciding with the Covid pandemic.