Iranian Conservatives Win Big on Small Turnout

[La_Serpiente]

Iranian Conservatives Win Big on Small Turnout

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Partial results from Iran's disputed parliamentary election showed Islamic conservatives hostile to President Mohammad Khatami's liberal reforms cruising to an expected victory on Saturday on a sharply lower turnout.

Interior Ministry figures showed conservatives had won 43 of the first 83 constituencies declared, out of 289 seats contested on Friday, an analyst at the Parliamentary Research Center said.

Reformists had won 21, and the rest went to independents of unknown sympathies. In 17 constituencies where no candidate polled more than 25 percent, there will be a run-off later.

Reformists branded the election rigged and many boycotted it after the unelected hard-line Guardian Council banned 2,500 mainly reformist candidates, including 80 sitting lawmakers, prompting Washington to say the vote was neither free nor fair.

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Iranian Conservatives Win Big on Small Turnout

[JNelson6563]

1. I heard on NPR that a lot of reform folks

boycotted the election. Look what it got 'em. Hard-liners. May we learn from their mistake.

Julie

[Vogon_Glory]

2. The Republicans Are Looking At Iran's Elections W/Envy

I'm sure that the right-wing masters of the Republican Party are looking at what happened in the Islamic Republic of Iran and are wondering how to bring about a similar candidate-vetting and election-rigging set-up here in the USA.

:grr: :nuke: