welcome to Tehran's Palestine square
here in Iran the polls remain open
tonight for an extra three hours as
authorities claimed there were many
queues to vote although we've seen no
evidence of such numbers here in Tehran
the poll has been deeply affected by the
decision by the ruling authorities to
reject thousands of candidates mainly
moderates and reformers I've been out
and about here in the capital today
here's what I found the air chard mosque
in Uptown Tehran a stark contrast from
the presidential election here in 2017
then it was awash with voters queues
down the road today space enough indeed
for one man to declare that he no longer
saw successive elections here have swung
between hardline conservative and
moderate and reformist politicians but
this time many of those reformist and
moderate candidates have simply been
excluded and that's why there is such
frustration and forecasts of a seriously
low turnout yet I found a prominent
academic who believes true democracy in
Iran
he's on its way our role at the moment
is toward democracy now I am a
revolutionary boy and I love Islam
revolution professor Saeed Leila's
worked for the reformist president
Hitomi as an economic adviser and was
imprisoned by hardline President
Ahmadinejad he says it's the burgeoning
middle classes will bring about
democracy so there's mr. Hitomi coming
to see you yes almost immediately you
came out of prison
yes we are much much more progressive
than there those days 60 to 70% of
Iranian lived in villages and now more
than 80 percent or around 80 percent are
living in urban areas if you want to
polish to a politic poverty you should
move to the city and we did it true
through revolution Islamic Revolution
I'd expected pessimism from this ex
political prisoner instead there was
this optimism I put it to him
surely the low Turner proves politics
here is dead never politics it never
because if you vote you are doing
politics if you don't want you are doing
politics at another mosque polling
station outside the mosque itself there
is what Iranians called a martyrs
graveyard here are buried fallen
soldiers from the irani rock war to the
present day
this man fought in Syria where Iran had
been crucial in propping up Assad in his
ruthless campaign to stay in power he
was proud of participating in the
election I'm proud to are fighting for
his country in what he believes is a war
to defend Iran to from the threat of
Isis Maha Iranian yeah they receive a
link a Shia militia to Michele emotional
- they were seen as Lajos day after
Saudi to number all profit area entirely
my own rico hostage by yesterday my
solid year Valley mahishmathi name it
with images evading a fraud he be unto
him i am lee-char
Bubba normal some of the Honda's Arecibo
Khanna this parliamentary election is a
prelude to the all-important
presidential contest next year is the
banning of moderate and reformist
candidates in this election a taste of
what's to come
at the same time footage posted on
social media appears to show a boycott
by some groups of the election empty
polling stations are seen throughout the
country including images from alvars
Mashhad
Kurama baat which in previous elections
has been a particularly busy polling
station as he cast his vote this morning
the country's supreme leader declared
that anyone who cares about Iran's
national interests should participate in
the election now this afternoon the
financial financial action task force
decided that Iran will be put on a
blacklist for failing to tackle
terrorism financing at home this will
extend international sanctions at a time
when the country had already hoped for
business with Europe to help its
struggling economy the outgoing
parliament had voted to comply with the
international regulations but its
decision was overruled by the Supreme
Council but had to discuss all this I'm
joined by professor Sarah ziba Kalam a
professor of political science at the
University of Tehran professor was it
sensible of the ruling council to
overrule Parliament's decision actually
to accept the international rules on
financing terrorism after all this is
going to trigger sanctions yes but I
think that this is the problem which
would be for the upcoming modulus
because regardless of the number of
participant the new modulus would
convene in about three months time
that's the new Parliament the new
Parliament the new Parliament and it
would be confronted them that the new
Parliament would be confronted with a
huge task because there are a lot of
expectations of the new new Parliament I
believe that given the fact that many
potential voters for for reformist
were absent they didn't take part in the
body to vote in today's election so I
believe that the hardliners would be the
commanding in a commanding position in
the new in the new Parliament but
convinced that confronting terrible
sanctions exactly on the one hand they
would be confronting Trump on the other
hand they would be called from the
the fact that because of the STF
sanctions and there is a huge
expectation for millions of Iranian who
have been suffering during the past six
years or so as a result of the United
States sanctions against Iranian people
life has become very difficult in Iran
so the neo Majlis is would be confronted
with the monumental task well now as you
know there polls are still open they're
open for three hours longer than they
were going to be because they say there
are so many queues to get into per vote
but everything we've seen here in Tehran
shows a very small Turner well to be to
be to be more accurate maybe the number
of participants in large cities such as
Tehran and other large cities there be
around twenty percent of the of the
voters but the authorities the
authorities wanted fifty percent no but
in a small town small towns and in in
rural district etc the participation
would be above a sixty percent so the
aggregate would be above would be around
fifty percent for the whole country
briefly what do you think the effect of
this poll will be on the presidential
elections next year does it mean there
won't be any radicals or reformists well
I believe that I believe that the the
the next Iranian president because of
the fact that the Majlis would be
dominated by the hardliners would
inevitably be a hardliners in about in
about 16 months seventeen months from
now we are going to have a presidential
election I believe that maybe maybe mr.
Ahmadinejad maybe he would he would come
up for as a candidate of course the The
Guardian Council would tend to oppose
him but given the fact that the Majlis
is is dominated by the hardliners it is
it would be very difficult for the
Guardian Council
to disqualify Ahmadinejad or another
hardliners
just briefly I sense this place is
feeling very depressed perhaps more
depressed than I've seen it in the 3040
years I've been coming here do you share
that view I wouldn't call it John
depressed but I would call it they're
very very hopeless that the younger
generation what we call post-revolution
generation many of them have given hope
for for any meaningful changes professor
thank you very very much India welcome
for joining us that crucial question of
turnout he's likely to become clear
during tonight and results will start
coming in tomorrow morning but one more
piece of news from here health
authorities have confirmed tonight two
more people in Iran have died from car
Navarro's they were among 13 new cases
of the virus all linked with the holy
city of gham a total of five people have
now died