Discount ticket on the bus to reform: Iran's runoff elections

After the February surprise when Iran’s reformers ingeniously outmanoeuvred the fundamentalists, Iran’s 2016 elections have fallen off the global media’s radar screen. However, a crucial second round of voting on 29 April is approaching for 64 parliamentary seats in districts all around the country. These are the places that were too close to call in February, when 226 out of 290 seats were decided.

All seats for metropolitan Tehran are filled – although there will be polling in three of its satellite cities – and most of the run-offs are in small towns, scattered around 18 of Iran’s 31 provinces. The races are lively, proving that Iran’s provinces, even if rarely visited by Tehranis much less foreigners, are no longer mired in myopic local rivalries.

Few Iranians have failed to notice the polarisation and keen polemic between reformers and fundamentalists building up over recent years. Case in point: a 32-second video clip has gone viral of a rally on 7 March in Yazd, 388 miles from Tehran, when a mere mention of Iran’s former reformist president Mohammad Khatami sent the crowd into a frenzy of chanting jubilation. Pundits have too long viewed Iran’s provincial life the way Karl Marx viewed India’s villages: ‘places where history stops’. Iran’s towns, however, are awakening. Eight years of economic stagnation, international isolation and corruption charges under the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have made the provinces sit up and take notice. With this election, issues larger than the usual local horse-trading are at stake.

The options for voters are clear. There are two coalitions who have introduced well identified, unified lists: the Coalition of Reformists and Supporters of the Government, and the Grand Coalition of Principle-ists (the fundamentalist camp). A third category comprised of self-proclaimed ‘Independents’ has a fundamentalist bent.

Competition is keen. In the first round of elections on 24 February, out-and-out reformists won 86 seats, giving them and their allies around 54% of seats decided. Capturing a large number of the remaining seats will seal their February victory, a prospect that is encouraging the fundamentalists to rally and try to shore up their losses.

But the 29 April runoff races, despite the vetting process that favours the fundamentalists, bode well for the reform movement. Of the 128 contestants, 52 are on the reformist’s slate: “the Second List of Hope”. They will compete with 76 fundamentalists for 64 seats (in 42 districts).