Iran Parliamentary Election: The Third Consecutive Victory for the Reformists

Abstract

On 18 February 2000, Iran held its 6th parliamentary elections after the 1979 revolution and the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). The elections were yet another challenge to cleric rule. Despite provisional measures, the dominant hard-line conservative faction of the government suffered its third embarrassing defeat of the past three years, the first being the surprise presidential victory of Sayyed Mohammad Khatami on 22 May 1997. Secondly, in the municipal elections of 26 April 1999, reform candidates won a majority of the 200,000 seats in city and village councils across the country. Thirdly, in the recent parliamentary elections, the pro-Khatami reform candidates had a landslide victory. These consecutive triumphs indicate a strong desire among the people for structural change, democracy and secularization in Iran.