Iran's hard-liners claim win because of vote's turnout

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's Islamic rulers claimed that voters handed a decisive blow to reformers by turning out in large numbers and rejecting their appeals to boycott parliament elections.

Official turnout figures were not immediately available following Friday's overtime balloting that is expected to return the 290-seat parliament to hard-line control.

A significant turnout could weaken the credibility of the embattled reform movement, which seeks more openness and accountability from the all-powerful theocracy.

Pro-reform groups called the election a sham after more than 2,400 of their candidates were barred from running.

But initial reports appeared to favor the conservative Islamic rulers.

The powerful Guardian Council said more votes were cast Friday than in the last parliament election in 2000, which had a 67.2 percent turnout. The council's statement did not give any figures or turnout estimates.

In another possible indication of turnout, election official Hossein Azimzadeh estimated that up to 2 million of Tehran's 6.4 million voters, or more than 31 percent, cast ballots, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. That compares with 42 percent for the capital in parliamentary elections four years ago.

Turnout in the rest of the country was expected to be higher than in Tehran, a stronghold of reformers.

The ruling establishment would have little reason to offer concession if predictions of a high turnout prove correct.

"You see how those who are against the Iranian nation and the revolution are trying so hard to prevent people from going to the polls," Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said after voting on Friday.

The headline in the conservative newspaper Jomhuriya Islami called the voter response "remarkable." The Hamshahri daily wrote of "wide participation."

But the moderate daily Entekhab was more cautious. "Who is the winner?" said its main headline.

The reformist newspaper Aftab expressed the hopes of many liberals: that the new parliament will be more pragmatic and eventually drift to their side.

Polls were kept open four hours later than scheduled to draw in every last vote.

The candidate ban by the Guardian Council left fewer than 250 veteran reformers among nearly 4,500 candidates and provoked one of Iran's most serious political crises in decades.

The immediate significance would be an end to the ideological clashes that have paralyzed the legislature since the reformists won a two-thirds majority in 2000.

Parliament has little power, since all key measures need approval from the appointed conservative clerics. But the new lawmakers could have a free hand to pass budgets that support conservative factions and outlets, such as state broadcasting.

A victory for conservatives also would consolidate hard-line control at a sensitive time. In Iraq, Shiite Muslims are pressing for early elections and look to predominantly Shiite Iran for backing. The United States and its allies, meanwhile, are questioning Iran's denials about seeking nuclear arms technology.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Friday that the candidate bans and other recent crackdowns were "reasons for concern."

More than 46 million people ages 15 and over were eligible to vote. No voting was planned in Bam in southeastern Iran, which was devastated by an earthquake Dec. 26.

State television and radio broadcast a nonstop series of reports and appeals aimed at stirring voters. Senior Islamic clerics described voting as a religious duty.

"I didn't want to be a non-Muslim, so I went to the polling station," said an elderly merchant, Hassan Rivandi, in the eastern city of Shabzever.

At least 150,000 police officers were assigned to patrols and to watch polling stations, IRNA said. There were no reports of violence.

In one of the TV broadcasts, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi singled out youths -- the core of the reformers' support. Nearly half of Iran's 65 million people are under 25. "Young people should know that (the future of) Islam is in their hands," he said.