Politics
Run-off elections have given moderates and reformists a working majority in the Iranian parliament for the first time in more than a decade. Supporters of President Hassan Rouhani won 42% of the 290 seats, short of an outright majority but comfortable enough to pass his legislative plans.
Independents took nearly 30% and many of them are said to be reform-minded, writes the BBC. Women took a record 17 seats, the most since the 1979 revolution, and more than clerics gained. Hardliners won just under a third of seats in a humiliating performance.
The reformist and moderate list claimed 37 seats in Friday's vote, giving them a total of 143 seats in the assembly — just two seats shy of 50 percent, reports the Associated Press. They are followed by hard-liners, with 86 seats, and independents, with 61. Twenty-two hard-liners and nine independents won seats in the runoff. Mohammad Reza Aref, head of the moderate-reformist bloc, welcomed the victory, saying "our priority is engagement with other factions rather than confrontation," the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. Tehran-based political analyst Saeed Leilaz called the results a "decisive victory" for the moderate-reformist bloc. "It is now clear that they are more popular than hard-liners, even in the remote areas," where their support was seen as lower than in major cities, Leilaz said. A total of 17 women won seats in both rounds of elections, the largest number ever. At least 11 of them are moderate-reformist.
