Two days later it's 60%, not 70%
Most of the news coming out of Iran since the Friday elections have been focused on the landslide victory of the "moderate" candidate Rouhani, but a major victory for the conservatives in the "city council" elections has gone unnoticed.
Even the lone article by the Washington post on the city council elections doesn't notice the defeat of the reformists, stressing instead the defeat of the "Ahmadinejad conservatives" to other conservatives and a few reformist (3). Of course the fact that conservatives won, but not the Ahmadinejad conservative maybe be significant. The regime may have concluded that reformists are a lesser evil than Ahmadinejad conservatives.
The Islamic republic doesn't allow the election of mayors or governors, leaving the "city council" assemblies as the only elected officials in local politics, hence the usually high turnout for these local elections (4).
The city council elections were not always held on the same day as the presidential election. While there are precedents for the election dates to coincide, the IR officially unified the election dates in 2010 (4).
It is assumed that the IR intentionally changed the date of the local elections to coincide with the presidential elections to maximize turnout. Historically, higher turnout was recorded in prior elections where the presidential elections were held on the same day as the city council elections (4).
A Parliamentary commission vetted and disqualified thousands of the best known reformist candidates--this was largely expected. What is surprising is that more than 50% voted for the "reformists" choice for president, yet more than 70% voted for conservative candidates for city councils, instead of voting for reformist and moderates across the board (1).
The 31 strong Tehran city council, for example, had 11 reformists voted in, with the rest going to conservatives (2).
Another case of deliberate "election engineering" or a statical anomaly?! You decide!
Refernces:
(1) Overall city council election results
(2) Tehran city election result
(3) Allies of Ahmadinejad routed
(4) Al monitor
City council elections, posted more than a month ago.
Photo source: theweek.com
UPDATE 6/20/2013: Fars news now reports that the conservatives won 60 % of the vote.
UPDATE 6/20/2013: Fars news now reports that the conservatives won 60 % of the vote.
