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Iranian leaders say election outcome defies West |
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By ALIAKBAR DAREINI, The Associated Press
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TEHRAN - Iranian leaders say their victory in parliamentary elections last month showed voters’ defiance of the West after allies of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the largest share.
But a powerful bloc of Ahmadinejad’s conservative opponents made a strong showing — a split that could mean frictions between the president and former supporters disillusioned by his fiery, populist rule and handling of the economy.
Iran’s Interior Ministry reported turnout in Friday’s vote at around 60 percent, up somewhat from 51 percent in 2004.
The unelected cleric-led Guardian Council threw out most of the reform movements candidates when it disqualified some 1,700 of them for insufficient loyalty to Islam and Iran’s 1979 revolution.
Washington said Iran’s leadership had “cooked” the election by barring reformists. The European Union said the vote was “neither fair nor free,” because the disqualifications prevented Iranians “from being able to choose freely amongst the full range of political views.” It said the barring of reformers was a “clear violation of international norms.”
Iran’s leaders, however, depicted the increased participation as a show of support of the clerical-led system. Ahmadinejad said the participation “placed a sign of disgrace on the foreheads of our enemies,” the state news agency IRNA reported.
Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had backed pro-Ahmadinejad candidates in the race, thanked Iranians for their participation.
“Your epic and powerful presence overcame the enemy’s tricks and turned the enemy’s high-profile psychological war aimed at encouraging a low turnout into a vain bubble,” he said, according to IRNA.
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