Iran poll: Parties claim victory
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Some polling stations extended their hours to ensure maximum turnout.
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Nearly half of the Iranian parliament is critical of general elections proceedings despite the belief that they will not be free or fair.
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TEHRAN, Iran -- Islamic hard-liners and reformists both claimed victory in Iran's elections, with returns showing conservatives ahead in the race for parliament but a reformist boycott limiting voter turnout.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that the winner of the election was the Iranian nation. He was upbeat about voter turnout, even though it marked a drop from previous elections, the Associated Press reports.
"The loser of this election is the United States, Zionism and enemies of the Iranian nation," he told state media, AP reported.
A reformist who called for a boycott, Ali Shakourirad, pointed to a voter turnout of less than 30 percent in the capital, Tehran, calling the poll "a big defeat for conservatives."
That trend, if it holds, would mark a significant moral victory for liberals who urged a boycott after hard-line clerics barred some 2,400 reformist from running for the 290-seat parliament
Boycott limits voter turnout
There were conflicting reports about the turnout in Friday's parliamentary election. Iran's state-controlled media reported a high turnout of the 46 million eligible voters despite a call for a boycott by reformists.
But some opposition leaders said the turnout in some areas was as low as 20 percent -- in marked contrast to the last parliamentary elections of 2000, when 67 percent of the electorate voted.
The election was greatly different to the one four years ago. Then, walls were plastered with pictures and campaign posters as the parliamentary elections of 2000 captivated a country that believed it was cementing a solid agenda of reform. Reformist candidates swept to power.
This time the walls were bare. Observers also said hopes embodied by President Mohammed Khatami's 1997 landslide win failed to materialize and his efforts to free up the country's restrictive political and social agenda were rebuffed by hard-line conservative clergymen, who retained the real power.
Last month, the Guardian Council -- which holds a blanket political veto -- sparked Iran's most serious political crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution by barring 4,000 reformist parliamentary candidates, including the president's own brother and 80 present members of Parliament.
The reformists accused the hard-liners of staging a parliamentary coup, and criticized the country's supreme leader for allowing the elections to go ahead despite the widespread belief that they would be unfair.
Some analysts and intellectuals have started to openly complain that Iran is becoming a religious dictatorship, little different from the monarchy deposed 25 years ago.
Many are openly criticizing Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and are disillusioned with his failures, calling on him to act on his frequent promises to resign.
However, CNN's Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour said it was notable that these criticisms are being voiced in public and certain social restrictions, such as on women's clothing, have been relaxed in recent years.
Still, these small but hard-won liberties are now under threat. One group of hard-liners running in Friday's election, the Coalition of Developers of Islamic Iran, said a ban on the use of satellite television, popular in Iran, must be enforced to guard against corruption of Islamic values and national security.
Amanpour added that conservatives, looking to regain full political control, are now reported to be positioning a cleric, Hassan Rowhani, to win presidential elections scheduled for next year.
Rowhani was Iran's pointman for crucial nuclear negotiations with the West last autumn.
The resulting agreement for intrusive inspections was widely hailed, but even that may develop into a new crisis after international inspectors discovered uranium enrichment centrifuge parts that are much more sophisticated than the type Tehran has admitted to having. (Full story)
CNN Correspondents Kasra Naji and Matthew Chance contributed to this report
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
