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Conservatives win Iran election
17/03/2008 19:24 - (SA)
Tehran - Conservatives on Monday celebrated winning an expected three-quarter parliament majority in Iran's elections, as the Islamic republic angrily denied EU accusations the polls were "neither fair nor free".
With results from Tehran still to be confirmed, the interior ministry said conservatives would control 74% of the 290 seats in parliament, with the rest going to reformists and independents.
Conservatives who have been critical of firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were set to have a reasonable representation, although it remains to be seen how this will affect his chances in 2009 presidential polls.
Once results from second round run-offs next month are confirmed in 65 seats, "the eighth parliament will have a decisive majority of principalists," said Shahabeddin Sadr, the spokesperson of the main conservative coalition.
Runoffs are held for leading candidates who polled less than 25%.
Iran's conservatives like to call themselves "principalists" to emphasise their loyalty to the vision of the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the pro-US shah.
Beset by controversy
But the elections have been beset by controversy over the disqualifications of hundreds of reformist candidates in pre-vote vetting, which effectively guaranteed that conservatives would retain control of the chamber.
As the conservatives celebrated, the United States and the European Union voiced harsh criticism.
"It was a highly restricted process that did not allow the Iranian people real free and fair opportunity to express their views and certainly did not allow those who might have wished to run an opportunity to do so," US State Department spokesperson Tom Casey said.
The pre-vote disqualifications meant "the election was neither fair nor free", said the EU's Slovenian presidency.
Iran, which described turnout of around 60% as a "glorious" show of national unity and faith in the Islamic republic, reacted furiously to the EU statement, which was issued before the State Department's criticism.
"The issuing of this statement by the EU presidency is hasty, has political intentions and is opportunist and unacceptable," said foreign ministry spokesperson Mohammad Ali Hosseini.
Conservatives split
The reformist vote nonetheless appears to have held up well and the embattled moderates can expect to build slightly on their current representation of around 40 MPs when the results are confirmed.
Conservatives had split, in a sign of disagreement about the populist policies of Ahmadinejad.
The Broad Principalist Coalition broke away from the traditional conservative coalition the United Conservative Front for Friday's vote, after a row about the candidates on the conservative list for Tehran.
The Broad conservatives are seen as being critical of the policies of the Ahmadinejad government, which has been accused even inside Iran of stoking inflation and inflaming the nuclear crisis with the West.
- AFP
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