20 March 2008: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his conservative allies may have won parliamentary elections on Friday, March 14 but the conservatives are divided. Even though the president enjoys strong support from Iran’s supreme leader, who holds all the power in Iran, he may find it difficult to deal with the new parliament.

The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the biggest winner of the elections. He holds the real power in Iran and both conservative camps support him. The Ayatollah handpicks half of Iran’s Guardian Council, which disqualified some 1,700 candidates. The Guardian Council has the final say on all political candidates and has the power to veto any law passed by the Majlis, or parliament.

The authorities also barred reformists from holding public rallies and shut down reformist newspapers. Despite the anti-democratic tactics the reformists actually increased their number of seats in the Majlis. With most Reformists purged from the ballots, the conservatives have split into two groups in parliament. Hard-liners who support President Ahmadinejad and favor a tough line in dealing with the West may eventually be outnumbered if the bloc of Pragmatic Conservatives joins with the Reformists. The Pragmatic Conservatives want to continue Iran’s controversial nuclear programs but are opposed Mr. Ahmadinejad’s fiery rhetoric. The Pragmatic Inclusive Coalition of Principlists party is expected to nominate Ali Larijani to be parliament’s speaker. The former nuclear negotiator, who won a landslide victory in the holy city of Qom, had resigned last year over differences with President Ahmadinejad.

Western countries condemned the elections as unfair and undemocratic. The White House said the elections were “cooked”, and the European Union harshly criticized the ballot. Slovenia, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said the Iranian elections were not free and not fair, drawing a swift denunciation by Iran’s foreign ministry.

Turnout for the eighth election to the unicameral 290-seat Majlis was around 60 percent, almost ten percent higher than the 2004 elections. About 200 seats were up for grabs and in the provinces conservatives won more than 113, reformists took at least 31, and independents have more than 39 seats.

But the reformists could pick up many of the independents and are also expected to gain seats in the runoff for the rest of the seats set for April or May. The United Fundamentalist Front won more than 65 seats.

The capital of Tehran has traditionally been a reformist stronghold, but early results show the reformists did not win any of the 30 seats from Tehran. Official results give conservatives 19 seats with the other 11 to be decided in next month’s runoff. The reformists cried foul accusing the government of rigging the vote and demanded a recount.

While Iran’s nuclear program has been the focus of the international press most Iranians are more concerned with the economy, which was the main election issue. Some food prices have doubled and the oil-rich country has been forced to ration gasoline. This winter was unusually harsh and President Ahmadinejad has been criticized for not paying attention to oil shortages.

This month’s elections were also seen as a preview of presidential elections next year. Mr. Larijani is expected to run against President Ahmadinejad as is the other political heavyweight, the pragmatic conservative mayor of Tehran Mohamed Qalibaf.

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