Vote count nears end in Iran, conservatives set for easy first round win
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TEHRAN (AFP) - The final results from Iran's disputed parliamentary elections were expected to show an easy first round win for the conservatives in polls that most of their reformists rivals were barred from contesting.
Counting was still going on in the capital Tehran, which returns 30 deputies to the 290-seat Majlis.
But results from two-thirds of the ballots counted showed a likely coalition of hardliners, conservatives and centrists on the cusp of crossing the 146-seat majority mark.
In contrast, reformists have managed to win less than 45 seats.
Some 58 seats will have to be contested in a second round, but with most reformists already eliminated before the polls, the second round of voting is certain to add to a crushing conservative majority.
Friday's voting was overshadowed by the mass blacklisting of reformists by the Guardians Council, a hardline political watchdog that screens candidates for public office and vets laws for their compliance with the constitution and Islamic law.
Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday angrily hit back at what it said were "unacceptable and interventionist comments" from the United States and European Union (news - web sites) (EU) over the elections.
The foreign critics were "not informed of the realities and the complexities of developments underway in Iran", spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the state news agency IRNA.
On Monday, the United States said the polls did not meet "international standards" and were "deeply flawed", given the blacklist. And EU foreign ministers called them a "setback for democracy".
Top regime figures here had called on Iranians to vote en masse to deal a blow to the United States, with which Iran has not had diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Gholam-Ali Hadad-Adel, head of the conservative Builders of an Islamic Iran -- a right-wing bloc poised to take all of Tehran's seats -- told reporters the EU should avoid making "premature judgements".
Amid the international criticism, a political battle in Iran over the record low voter turnout continued to rage with the interior ministry hitting back at conservatives' allegations it was seeking to discredit their win.
The reformist-run ministry, responsible for organising the polls and overseeing the vote count, put turnout at 28 percent in Tehran and 50.57 percent nationwide -- the lowest for a major election in the 25-year history of the Islamic republic.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1511&ncid=1511&e=10&u=/afp/20040224/wl_afp/iran_vote_040224141705"TEHRAN (AFP) - The final results from Iran's disputed parliamentary elections were expected to show an easy first round win for the conservatives in polls that most of their reformists rivals were barred from contesting."
This first sentence sounds like a Saturday Night Live or Monty Python news report.
LoL.