Iran elections draw big turnout

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranians appeared to have turned out in large numbers Friday to vote in parliamentary elections nationwide.

In Tehran, lines formed at major mosques where polling took place.

Supporters of reformist candidates showed up at polling places — especially in the middle-class neighborhoods of central and western Tehran — flashing yellow cards bearing the picture of Mohammad Khatami, the former reformist president, and the names of 30 reformist candidates.

"I am voting because I did not vote in the two previous elections," said Mohammad Hossein Fozi, 27. "As a result, people I don't like were elected, and their policies have affected my life."

At the Sadeghieh mosque in western Tehran, more than 100 people waited to vote. A medical doctor, who refused to give her name, said she was voting for the reformers so that the next parliament would stop "blindly" endorsing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies.

Polling stations in the south of the city, where mostly poorer people live, were relatively empty, but the large mosque of Al Nabi in eastern Tehran, where Ahmadinejad lives, was crowded. Women there voted separately from the men.

The elections were being held just a week before Nowruz, the March 21 New Year holidays, when many people are busy shopping. Still, many of those who refrained from voting complained about the economy, with high prices and high unemployment.

Conservatives were divided between supporters and critics of Ahmadinejad, but their differences were so murky that many voters said they saw no difference between the two groups. And many of the president's outspoken critics were on the list of parliamentary candidates who supported him.

It was widely expected that conservatives would win the majority of seats since the Guardian Council, a hard-line group of clerics that reviews candidate lists, barred many leading reformists from entering the race.

Reformers said they could compete for only about half of the seats in the 290-seat Assembly, but they appealed to their supporters to vote for them to build a strong minority. The high turnout of supporters suggested they would turn out in large numbers for presidential elections in 2009.

A survey by the state-run IRNA news agency before the election predicted a turnout of 50 percent of the voting population in Tehran and 60 percent in the rest of the country. Turnout was around 51 percent nationwide four years ago, when conservatives won a majority of seats.

To encourage a large turnout, the Interior Ministry extended the voting to 11 p.m. from 6 p.m. The ministry said the results would be announced by the middle of next week.