On Friday, Iranians lined up outside polling places to vote in the first national elections since Iran reached a nuclear agreement with the U.S. and other world powers last year. At stake are all 290 seats in parliament and 88 seats in the Assembly of Experts, the body of clerics that picks the supreme leader and may well pick the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 76 and has dealt with health problems. Both bodies are currently controlled by conservatives.
Khamenei, a hardliner opposed to Western influence, urged Iranians to vote, saying "turnout in the elections should be so high to disappoint our enemies." The moderates and reformists led by President Hassan Rouhani would like to use the diplomatic thaw of the nuclear deal to attract Western investment and create jobs. Iran's system of government invests a lot of power in the supreme leader and the Guardian Council, which approves all laws and has already put its stamp on the election by rejecting most of the moderate and nearly all of the reformist candidates who registered to run.
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