Voting Begins in Iran - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Iran's polls opened Friday morning in a critical election that will determine whether the country will continue with the reforms taken by President Hassan Rouhani or if conservative opposition will sweep into power that could derail his agenda. Voters will determine the members of two crucial governing institutions -- the Parliament and the Assembly of Experts. In Rouhani's 2½ years in office, the president has signed a deal that limited Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. If more hardliners are elected, relations could regress back to stalemate days, putting in jeopardy much of the recent progress -- such as the nuclear agreement.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/26/world/iran-elections-vote/[/url]

Hopefully the Iranian people will vote to continue the reforms

Hopefully the moderates at least can make a difference on the supreme council, that's what will pick the next ayatolah which will determine Iran's political structure for decades to come

[QUOTE=The golden;49817469]Only so much the President can do because everything can be overruled by the ayatollah.[/QUOTE] The Ayatollah is limited too. He knows that actively defying the will of the people as a whole is a dangerous move, and he also knows that any number of opportunistic generals or clergymen could try to exploit the situation. He wouldn't be able to get away with anything outlandish.

[QUOTE=Lurr;49819174]The Ayatollah is limited too. He knows that actively defying the will of the people as a whole is a dangerous move, and he also knows that any number of opportunistic generals or clergymen could try to exploit the situation. He wouldn't be able to get away with anything outlandish.[/QUOTE] The ayatollah is also very old and will die soon anyways. Iran really is a political powder keg. I just hope that what ever happens, it's for the best

Good explanation as to why these elections are significant: [video=youtube;LVrtd7Ltk-4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVrtd7Ltk-4[/video] TL:DW; The Ayatollah is old and could die in the next term, the elected Assembly of Experts chooses the next Ayatollah.

When are the results?

[QUOTE=The golden;49817469]Only so much the President can do because everything can be overruled by the ayatollah.[/QUOTE] The people who decide the Ayatollah is decided by elections and so far the Ayatollah have been okaying the reforms.

[B]UPDATE[/B]: [T]http://i.imgur.com/7Kxl76k.jpg[/T] [QUOTE]Iran's moderates have dealt another blow to the country's hardliners, winning a majority of seats in the Assembly of Experts, a clerical council empowered with choosing the nation's supreme leader. Iran's Interior Ministry, which gave the final results for last week's vote for the clerical assembly, announced on Monday that moderates won 59 percent of the seats in the body. Top moderates, including President Hassan Rouhani and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, both won seats in the assembly, along with 50 of their allies, giving them a majority in the 88-member body. Iranians wait for final election results as reformists surge The vote was held at the same time as the country's parliamentary elections. The final results of that vote were expected later on Monday. As the moderates claimed an historic victory, several prominent hardliners, including Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, were also re-elected. Jannati is also the hardline leader of the country's Guardian Council, an unelected, constitutional watchdog that vets election candidates. He has been the most potent force to oppose democratic reforms and disqualify reformist candidates from the parliamentary balloting and also the clerical assembly vote. Jannati and his allies in the Guardian Council disqualified Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, from running in Friday's vote. "So far the reformists have been the winners, and the results in Tehran signal people's dissatisfaction with the conservatives," Rohollah Faghihi, a Tehran-based political analyst and journalist, told Al Jazeera. [/QUOTE] [url]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/02/moderates-dominate-council-clerics-iran-elections-160229091044340.html[/url]

Hell yes. [editline]29th February 2016[/editline] They only had 20 seats before. "Rouhani [who also won a seat] and his ally former president Rafsanjani could play a role in picking the next supreme leader."