Religious conservatives were Wednesday crowned as the winners of Iran's parliamentary elections, securing a firm majority in the assembly in polls that most of their incumbent reformist rivals were barred from contesting.
Final results from the interior ministry showed a likely coalition of hard-liners, conservatives and other right-wingers holding 156 of the 290 Majlis seats after the first round of voting.
Reformists were decimated with just 39 seats. In addition, they can only contest 17 of the 58 seats that need a second round - pointing to a crushing right-wing majority when the new parliament convenes in May.
The result was hardly a surprise, given that most reformists were blacklisted ahead of the polls by the Guardians Council, an unelected political oversight body run by hard-liners fiercely opposed to any liberalisation of the 25-year-old clerical regime.
Speaking to the European parliament in Brussels, Iran's Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi on Wednesday criticised the elections and issued a veiled warning that the gap between the Iranian people and leadership could turn violent.
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