Iran elections: Moderates and reformers win big

Alessandra Kelley · Feb 28, 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...l-blow-to-hardliners-as-reformists-make-gains

In promising-looking news, moderate and reform candidates look to have done spectacularly well in Iran's current election.

A coalition of candidates supported by the reformists, dubbed as “the list of hope”, is likely to take all of the capital’s 30 parliamentary seats, according to the latest tally released by the interior ministry, in surprising results seen as a strong vote of confidence in Rouhani’s moderate agenda. Mohammad Reza Aref, a committed reformist who has a degree from Stanford University in the US, is at the top of the list.

As many as 20 women are expected to win parliamentary seats, a record for Iran. Among them is the reformist candidate Parvaneh Salahshori, who said in a recent foreign media interview that women should have a choice to wear the hijab. The issue is a taboo subject in the Islamic Republic.

The elections were the first since Iran’s landmark nuclear agreement last summer and the lifting of sanctions in mid-January. The short and carefully controlled campaign – marked by the prior disqualification of hundreds of candidates – was dominated by the state of the economy, which has improved in recent months though few tangible gains have trickled down to ordinary people.

“The reformists and moderates have managed to take at least a third of the seats,” said Sadegh Zibakalam, professor of politics at Tehran University. Rafsanjani’s success in the assembly was extremely important. “We can’t say that the ultra-conservatives were defeated, but the conservatives can’t say they received a huge mandate,” he added.

Zoombie · Feb 28, 2016

Good for them!

You know, I started speculating what the nuclear deal might have done to impact this...and while I think that it might have hurt the conservatives to not have a big enemy to play off of (because that seems to be what most conservative factions of governments around the world do) I'm pretty sure this would have happened either way.

Since...America is not the center of the world and all that.

rugcat · Feb 28, 2016

Alessandra Kelley said:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...l-blow-to-hardliners-as-reformists-make-gains

In promising-looking news, moderate and reform candidates look to have done spectacularly well in Iran's current election.

The Iran deal, which was so unpopular with conservatives here and hardliners there may have affected the elections. Political moderates and the populace in general in Iran seem to be growing weary of the isolation from the West which has been the result of the hard-line theocratic rule.

cmi0616 · Feb 28, 2016

A good step, to be sure, but I think the money flowing into Iran will only serve to cause further political unrest. As technology advances and now, as commerce is somewhat liberated, the people are increasingly displeased with the mullahs and the ayatollah's regime. One way or another, I think the theocracy's days are somewhat numbered.

Admittedly, wishful thinking may play a role here on my part. My family was chased out of Iran sometime before the revolution, and I wish to visit one day.

blacbird · Feb 28, 2016

cmi0616 said:
One way or another, I think the theocracy's days are somewhat numbered.

Over there, maybe. Here . . . ?

caw

Iran elections: Moderates and reformers win big

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

rugcat

Lost in the Fog

cmi0616

blacbird