Iran polls: Big win for Hassan Rouhani in second round

Reformist and moderate politicians allied with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani won twice as many seats as their conservative rivals in the second round of parliamentary elections, official results said on Saturday.

The reformist List of Hope that backs Mr Rouhani gained 38 legislastors in run-off polls that took place on Friday, with conservatives winning 18 and independents 12, the interior ministry said.

The second ballot for 68 seats was needed as no candidate won the minimum 25 per cent of votes in the first round of voting which took place on February 26, and its outcome will make the List of Hope the biggest single group in Parliament when legislators are sworn-in in May.

The result is also an implicit public vote of confidence for Mr Rouhani, who won a landslide election victory in 2013 and went on to clinch a historic deal with world powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme that lifted sanctions.

Tallies also showed 17 women were elected — eight more than at present, and the highest female representation since the country’s revolution in 1979.

Almost a quarter of Parliament’s seats were at stake in the run-offs on Friday in what was a showdown between reformists and conservatives seeking to influence the country’s future.

Although Iran’s Parliament has marginal powers — under the country’s theocratic rule clerics can veto legislation — the result will make economic reforms easier and could also speed up the social change demanded by reformists.

Their return as a major force is a shake up for hardliners in Tehran after an era of diplomatic clashes with the West over a nuclear programme that, before Mr Rouhani, had left Iran under threat of military attack.

Most legislators who opposed the landmark agreement, struck in 2015 after years of talks with Tehran’s long-time foe the United States and other leading nations, were rejected by voters. That verdict should make Mr Rouhani’s job easier.

Iran does not have rigid party affiliations, making election outcomes notoriously opaque. Some candidates were backed by both camps and others stood as independents.

In stark contrast to the first two-and-a-half years of his presidency, the result should give Mr Rouhani a supportive Parliament. The outgoing conservative-led chamber repeatedly blocked him and even impeached one of his ministers.

Iran’s reformists have encouraged foreign investment, support moves for greater diplomatic rapprochement and seek social change and fewer political restrictions at home. Their electoral gains in February came just six weeks after Tehran’s implementation of the nuclear deal.

Around 17 million citizens were eligible to vote on Friday and polling took place in 21 provinces, but not the capital Tehran, as reformists won all of the capital’s 30 seats in the first round.