Iran's Interior Ministry Claims Conservatives Secured Majority Votes - 2004-02-21

The Iranian Interior Ministry announced that conservatives decisively won the majority of votes in the controversial elections held on Friday, defeating reformist candidates who boycotted the parliamentary elections following the disqualification of over two thousand of their candidates. According to the claims made by the Islamic Republic's Interior Ministry on Saturday, conservative candidates secured the majority of the first round of parliamentary seats. About 2400 reformist candidates were disqualified by the Guardian Council last month. This action by the Guardian Council has been criticized by U.S. officials who believe the elections were neither free nor fair. Due to the actions of the Guardian Council, conservatives are expected to hold 290 parliamentary seats. In the previous four-year elections, reformist lawmakers held the majority of seats. Amal Hamadeh, an analyst and expert on Iranian affairs at Cairo University, stated, 'A heavy responsibility now lies ahead for the conservatives. I think they need to work hard to assure the international community that the rise of conservatives does not threaten regional stability and will not pursue nuclear issues.' The voter turnout in Friday's elections was under scrutiny, as many reformist leaders had called for a boycott of the elections. The Iranian state news agency on Saturday praised the public's participation in the elections, while conservative newspapers published stories about widespread voter turnout. There is still no possibility for independent verification of the voter turnout. Many analysts expect that the public participation in the elections will be less than the 67% turnout in the previous parliamentary elections.