Iranian religious conservatives were on Sunday all-but confirmed as winners of controversial parliamentary polls, but drew a record low turnout as they put an end to the Islamic republic's turbulent experiment with reforms.
The interior ministry said 50.57 percent of Iran's 46.3 million eligible voters cast ballots in Friday's polls, the weakest showing in a major election in the 25 years of the Islamic republic. In the capital, turnout was just 28 percent.
The figures were well below the two-thirds of the overall electorate and 46 percent of Tehranis who took part in the 2000 legislative contests.
But top regime figures, who had lobbied hard for people to ignore reformist calls for a boycott after nearly all pro-reform candidates were disqualified from even standing, had already trumpeted what they termed a "massive turnout."
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the "totally free, healthy and legal" elections had dealt a decisive blow to those urging a boycott.
He said in a statement repeated several times on state television that it was "the people who had emerged the winner in this election, and it was the United States, the Zionists and the enemies of Iran who lost."
Another loser was embattled President Mohammad Khatami, whose final term ends in June 2005 and now stands isolated as one of the few reformists left in public office.
Those reformists who were approved and did not boycott appeared set to take about 40 seats in the 290-seat chamber. Definitive results were not expected before Monday.
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