Early election results point to gains for Iran's moderates

Early election results in Iran show reformists who favor expanding democratic freedoms and improving relations with the West are expanding their presence in parliament and a clerical body responsible for selecting the country's next supreme leader.

Reports in the semi-official Fars and Mehr news agencies showed hard-liners losing ground in the 290-seat legislature. None of Iran's three main political camps – reformist, conservative, and hard-line – was expected to capture a majority, but the reformist camp is on track for its best showing in more than a decade.

A victory for reformists would be a boost for moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who championed the newly implemented Iranian nuclear deal with world powers in the face of hard-line opposition.

Initial results also showed moderates gaining ground in the 88-member Assembly of Experts, which will select the successor to 76-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's top decision-maker since 1989.

State TV reported that Rouhani and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a relative moderate, are on track to keep their seats on the 88-seat assembly, which is elected every eight years.

The two were leading in the Tehran constituency, which will send 16 candidates to the assembly and is seen as a political bellwether. Just three of the Tehran clerics who were on track to win are hard-liners, down from six who currently serve in the assembly. There were no immediate results from other constituencies, and vote counting was still underway.

The current assembly only has around 20 moderates.

Nearly 55 million of Iran's 80 million people were eligible to vote. Participation figures were not immediately available, but Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli on Saturday said participation was likely to exceed 60 percent based on the partial counting of the votes.

Friday's election was the first since last summer's nuclear agreement was finalized, lifting international economic sanctions in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program. U.S. officials had hoped the agreement would strengthen moderates in Iran, perhaps paving the way for improved ties and cooperation on other issues, including the war against the Islamic State group.

Polls closed at midnight and officials immediately began counting the ballots. In the capital, officials counting the ballots in three different districts told The Associated Press that reformists were leading their hard-line rivals. The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with reporters.

A substantial reformist bloc could herald a crucial shift in Iran's internal politics. The hard-line camp is largely made up of loyalists of Rouhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who during his two terms in office stoked tensions with the U.S. and cracked down on dissent. Ahmadinejad also alienated large sectors of the conservative camp, leading some moderate conservatives to ally with reformists in this election in a bid to reduce the power of the hard-liners.

Reformists rose to power with the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami, followed by 2000 parliamentary elections that brought a reformist majority for the first time. The movement pressed for an easing of Islamic social restrictions, wider freedom of expression and better ties to the international community.

But that hold was broken in the next election in 2004, when reformist candidates were largely barred from running. Ahmadinejad's election victory in 2005 sealed the movement's downfall. Reformists were virtually shut out of politics until Rouhani was elected in 2013.

The presidential election in 2009 was followed by mass protests over alleged voting fraud, but other past elections in Iran have been held without any major disputes. However, the Guardian Council has the right to vet candidates, and this year it disqualified all but 30 of the 3,000 reformist candidates who had hoped to run.