DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s hard-liners are main in an preliminary vote depend within the capital Tehran, state media reported Sunday, following a record-low turnout in a parliamentary election.
State-run IRNA information company and state TV stated 1,960 from 5,000 ballots in Tehran had been counted to this point, based mostly on an Inside Ministry report up to date hourly.
Officers haven’t but launched turnout figures from Saturday’s election. Nevertheless, IRNA stated it was 41 %, based mostly on unofficial stories.
Within the final parliamentary election in 2019, solely 42 % of eligible voters solid a poll in what was thought of to be the bottom turnout for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Onerous-liners have managed the parliament for the previous 20 years — with chants of “Demise to America” usually heard whereas in session.
Beneath Iranian regulation, the parliament has a wide range of roles, together with overseeing the manager department and voting on treaties. In apply, absolute energy in Iran rests with its supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Friday’s election was the primary for the reason that bloody crackdown on the 2022 nationwide protests that adopted the demise of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
Amini, 22, died on Sept. 16, 2022, after her arrest by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the nation’s strict scarf regulation forcing girls to cowl their hair and full our bodies.
The protests rapidly escalated into calls to overthrow Iran’s clerical rulers. Within the extreme clampdown that adopted, over 500 individuals have been killed and almost 20,000 arrested, in line with human rights activists in Iran.
