Key Points
March 2. Unofficial reports on Saturday estimated turnout in Irans parliamentary election, seen as a test of the clerical establishments legitimacy, at about 40 per cent, which would be the lowest turnout since the 1979 Islamic revolution...
With heavyweight moderates and conservatives staying out and reformists calling Fridays election unfree and unfair, the contest was essentially among hardliners and low-key conservatives who proclaim loyalty to Islamic revolutionary ideals...
Tehrans rulers needed a high turnout to repair their legitimacy, badly damaged by anti-government protests in 2022-23 that spiralled into some of the worst political turmoil since the revolution...
Irans turnout hit a record low 42.5 per cent in 2020 parliamentary elections, while about 62 per cent of voters participated in 2016...
Hamshahri called Fridays turnout a 25-million slap to calls for an election boycott, in a front-page headline next to a depiction of a ballot paper smacking US President Joe Biden in the face...
