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Iran’s Parliament in conservatives’ grip

— PHOTO: AFP

IN CONTROL: Iran’s Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi announces the parliamentary poll results in Tehran on Saturday.

DUBAI: Iran’s conservatives have strengthened their hold over the new Parliament after winning 69 per cent of the seats. The results, announced on Saturday, covered two rounds of elections.

Iran had earlier announced the results for those candidates who had won in the first phase of polling that were held in March. The run-off elections were held on Friday. Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said on Saturday that the reformists had won 16 per cent and independents got 14 per cent of the seats.

The results were based on the count of 287 seats in the 290-member Parliament.

Analysts said the results showed the continued decline of the reformists, who were once a formidable force under the former President, Mohammad Khatami.

However, the conservatives are split between hardliners loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the “soft conservatives,” led by leaders such as Tehran Mayor Mohammad Qalibaf and the former chief negotiator on the nuclear issue, Ali Larijani. Many hardliners were followers of the Haqqani ideological school, which is based in Qom.

Despite their internal difference, the conservatives did not challenge the existing architecture of the Iranian political system, led by Ali Khamenei.

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