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| Monday, 23 February 2004 |
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Polls victory defeat for US: Khamenei TEHRAN, Sunday (Reuters) Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday hailed a parliamentary election in which conservatives surged towards victory as a defeat for the Islamic Republic's arch-foes, the United States and Israel. Interior Ministry figures showed conservatives, hostile to President Mohammad Khatami's liberal reforms, had won 133 out of the first 194 seats declared, Deputy Parliament Speaker Behzad Nabavi said. A total of 289 seats were at stake. Khamenei, Iran's highest authority, was quoted on television as saying the February 20 election in the oil-producing state had been held under the "bombardment of enemy propaganda". "The losers in this election are the United States, Israeli Zionists and the country's enemies," Khamenei said. Washington and the European Union voiced concern over the way the election was held. Reformists, in the majority in the outgoing parliament, said the poll was rigged and many boycotted it after the unelected hardline Guardian Council banned 2,500 mainly reformist candidates. A conservative majority could spell an end to Khatami's seven-year experiment in allowing greater freedom of speech and loosening Islamic cultural and social restrictions, a drive that hardliners have tried to obstruct at every turn. As the Parliament convenes when Iranians will learn whether defeated reformists will go through with resignation threats or use their two remaining months in office as a platform for speaking out. State radio and television, keen to show the reformist boycott had no impact on the poll, announced a 60 percent turnout.But Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said the turnout was about 50 percent, sharply down from the 67 percent in 2000 when Khatami's reformist allies won two-thirds of the seats. The lowest turnout for a parliamentary election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution was 53 percent in 1980. By Saturday night the vote count showed reformists had won 37 seats, independents 17 and five were reserved for the religious minorities - Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians. In 31 districts where no candidate polled more than 25 percent, there will be a run-off later. No women were among the first 194 parliamentarians elected. There were 13 in the outgoing parliament. "Unfortunately, this was not a free election," said Mostafa Tajzadeh, a leader of the main reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), which boycotted the poll. "Our belief from the outset that the conservatives would win was proved right," he said. Reformists also had to struggle to overcome apathy and disillusionment among voters, particularly young Iranians, over the slow pace of Khatami's reforms. Conservative commentator Amir Mohebian, a policy adviser to Iran's senior clerical leaders, suggested the victors would use a velvet glove rather than an iron fist, and the new assembly would usher in a second phase of more effective reforms. But political analyst Hossein Rassam forecast an escalation of factional conflict and a crackdown. "The reformists are aware that the conservatives will try to make deals with the European Union and will try to prevent this by being outspoken about the state of democracy in Iran," Rassam said. "This will antagonise the hardliners and will lead to arrests, the closure of more newspapers and so on," he said. |
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