The results of this year’s Majlis (parliament) elections in Iran are in and they are pretty interesting, more women than clerics, and a plurality for Rouhani supporters. There are still a number of significant constraints on Rouhani’s administration, but the results do give Rouhani a little more breathing room. They are also an interesting indicators of the public’s mood after the JCPOA (nuclear) deal was signed.
“Women will edge out clerics by at least one and possibly two seats, 17-16. Moreover candidates from the so-called List of Hope –consisting of reformists and pragmatic supporters of the government of President Hassan Rouhani – gained a plurality in the 290-member parliament.
The April 29 elections were necessary to determine the winners of 68 seats for which no candidate received at least 25 percent of the votes during the original balloting on Feb. 26. The runoffs took place in 21 provinces and 121 cities; 176 candidates competed of whom 55 were on the List of Hope.
The number of clerics elected is a sharp drop from the early days of the revolution – only one-tenth the number who participated in the first parliament and 11 fewer than in the outgoing ninth parliament. Equally stunning, Etemad newspaper writes that out of the 80 representatives who opposed Iran’s recent nuclear agreement, only 12 won re-election.”
IR Theory & Practice 