BY MOHAMAD BAZZI, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT
February 23, 2004
TEHRAN, Iran - The religious conservatives set to dominate Iran's new parliament could try to play a more prominent role in foreign policy and nuclear strategy as the country confronts suspicions that it is trying to develop nuclear arms, analysts said.
Hard-line Islamic candidates held a wide lead across Iran yesterday and even appeared likely to win all 30 parliamentary seats in the liberal stronghold of Tehran. With thousands of pro-reform candidates banned from the race and liberal parties urging a boycott of Friday's election, conservatives were almost guaranteed to retake control of the 290-seat legislature.
Reformers have focused on the turnout as an indication of whether the conservatives would have a strong mandate to rule. Turnout appeared to hover at around 50 percent nationwide, the Interior Ministry said. That would make it the lowest turnout of any parliamentary election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In the last parliamentary election in 2000, turnout was 67 percent.
About 2,400 pro-reform candidates were disqualified last month by the Guardian Council, a nonelected group of clerics who answer directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Among those disqualified were 87 current members of parliament, which has been controlled by reformers for the past four years.
By last night, the conservative bloc had won at least 135 seats, according to the Interior Ministry. In addition, with about one-fifth of the ballot boxes counted in Tehran, conservatives were set to sweep all 30 of the capital's seats. That would give hard-liners far more than the ' seats needed to control the legislature. Reformers and independents have won about 65 seats. A final tally is expected today or tomorrow.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
