Iranians vote in legislative, key assembly polls amid economic concerns

Conservative and hardline candidates are expected to win a majority as surveys indicate a low voter turnout.

Iranians are voting for a new parliament in an election marred by frustration over economic woes and restrictions on political and social freedoms.

The election on Friday is the first formal measure of public opinion since antigovernment protests in 2022-2023 spiralled into some of the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iranian officials and even Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the public to cast ballots, but polling stations in the country’s capital, Tehran, appeared to have few voters.

Authorities have largely barred politicians calling for any change within the country’s theocracy, known broadly as reformists, from running in the election – leaving mostly only a broad slate of conservative or hardline figures.

Iran’s economy continues to stagnate under Western sanctions over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme and the country’s arming of militia proxies in the Middle East and Russia in its war on Ukraine.