France 24:

Moderate candidates allied to President Hassan Rohani came out strongest in a second round of parliamentary elections in Iran, unofficial results showed on Saturday, but they appeared unlikely to win an overall majority.

The results, if confirmed, suggest Iran’s next parliament will be more supportive of Rohani’s drive for economic reforms, but conservatives will remain a powerful force and could limit the prospects for social change.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 from Teheran, AFP’s deputy bureau chief in Iran, Arthur MacMillan, said that even though the current results remain provisional, it’s looking more and more as though it will be an election pushing “the reformists in and the conservatives out”.

“That’s very good news for President Rohani because in his 2.5 years as president he has continually faced resistance from what has been a conservative-dominated legislature,” MacMillan said.

Iranians voted on Friday for 68 seats where no candidate had won decisively in the first round, held in February. Rohani’s allies made significant gains in the first round, ending conservative dominance of the 290-seat assembly.

Unofficial results compiled by Iranian news agencies suggested moderate candidates won around 30 of the 68 seats in the second round, with the rest split between conservatives and independents...

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