Iranian President's Allies Gain All Tehran Seats in Parliamentary Elections

Advocates of the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s reformist course have received all 30 parliamentary seats during Parliamentary Elections in the Iranian capital of Tehran, national media reported Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s reformist allies gained all 30 parliamentary seats in the Iranian capital of Tehran, national media reported Sunday.

Preliminary Interior Ministry data indicated reformist leader Mohammad Reza Aref leading the list of 30 candidates in Tehran, according to the IRNA news service. Aref served as first vice president in 2001-05.

Principlist candidate Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel placed 31st in the Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr electoral district.

Iranians voted on February 26 to elect a new Islamic Consultative Assembly of 290 members for four-year terms.

Over 4,800 candidates have registered to participate in the election, according to the Iranian Central Election Commission. Around 500 women have made it into electoral lists.

With over 54 million Iranians eligible to cast their ballots, voters are choosing mainly between candidates from the Principlists Coalition electoral list, comprising various conservative political parties, and candidates from the Pervasive Coalition of Reformists.

Rouhani and former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani are leading in the parallel race to the Assembly of Experts, the 88-member clerical body that appoints the country’s supreme leader.