Iran’s moderates have dealt another blow to country’s hard-liners, winning majority of seats in last week’s vote for the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body empowered with choosing nation’s supreme leader.
Top moderates President Hassan Rouhani and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani both won seats in the assembly, along with 50 other of their allies. The vote for the 88-member Assembly of Experts was held at the same time as the country’s parliament elections. The final results of that vote were expected for later Monday.
According to Iran’s Interior Ministry, which gave the final results for the clerical assembly, moderates won 59 per cent of the seats in the body. And though it’s seen as a historic win for the moderates, several prominent hard-liners, including Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati have also been re-elected.
Ayatollah Jannati, who finished last in Tehran, is also the hard-line leader of the country’s Guardian Council, an unelected, constitutional watchdog that vets election candidates.