Reformists eye win in Iran polls

An Iranian woman and child cross the street bearing an electoral poster for parliament speaker Ali Larijani in a street of Qom.

 The field for Iran's parliamentary election on Friday has narrowed sharply with more than a fifth of the candidates pulling out, apparently urging voters to back the main political lists instead.
The head of the interior ministry's election headquarters, Mohammed Hossein Moghimi, said on Thursday that 4,844 hopefuls would contest the 290 seats, meaning 1,385 candidates have withdrawn.
Polls will open at 0430GMT and are scheduled to close at 1430GMT but voting could be extended if required, Iranian media quoted him as saying.
His comments followed a state television appearance late on Wednesday by Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli who revealed the fall in numbers.
"It now leaves around 17 people competing for each parliamentary seat," Fazli said.
"Ten per cent of the total candidates are women," he added, a figure that amounts to a cut of about 100 female candidates, leaving some 500 still running.
Iranian politics is dominated by factions rather than political parties and Friday's poll will see conservatives up against moderates and reform-minded candidates on a series of lists.
A pro-government List of Hope comprising moderates and reformists is supporting President Hassan Rohani, a moderate who is looking for his allies to make gains against conservatives.
The main conservative list is headed by Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, a former parliament speaker, whose daughter is married to one of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's sons.
Election results from outside Tehran are expected within 24 hours of the close of polls but the count in the capital, which has a population of 12 million and is electing 30 lawmakers, will take three days.
For the first time, voting will also take place on the same day for the 88 members of the Assembly of Experts, a powerful committee of clerics that will choose Iran's next supreme leader.
Fazli said the number of candidates in that ballot had also fallen, from 161 to 159.
Meanwhile, a senior reformist candidate forecast victory for allies of President Hassan Rohani over hardline opponents in parliamentary elections on Friday, saying this would help the pragmatic leader revive an economy hit by years of sanctions.
Former vice-president Mohammed Reza Aref said that even if hardliners retain control of the 290-seat assembly, moderates would seek allies to enable them to press for an opening of the $400-billion economy to the outside world.
"We think we will get it, but if we don't get the majority and if we are a minority we will make a coalition to pursue our reforms and development plans," he said.
"Our speculation is that the extremists or principlists won't have the majority in the parliament and the general atmosphere of the majlis (parliament) will be changed. It is our hope but also our analysis is based on reality."
The term principlists means hardliners who generally are anti-Western and keen to preserve the conservative core values and principles of the 1979 revolution against foreign influence and social reforms. Such politicians are estimated to control in effect 60 per cent of the house.
Supporters of Rohani aim to gain influence in the elections for the parliament and the 88-member Assembly of Experts, the body that will choose the country's next supreme leader.

• MENA