Re: 25 killed in attack on Mosul funeral
Lets put this in a little perspective.
A 57% turnout is HIGHER than the last election in Iran. Voter turnout in Tehran dipped to nearly 33%. So rather than rant “liar” like a child, you may wish to address the issue. In this case, the voter turnout in Iraq with the threat of death in the air was higher than its neighbor. Had there been no violence by Muslims wishing to kill other Muslims, the voter turnout in Iraq would have been much higher. Is this a significan event in Iraq? Yes.
Voter turnout
The Interior Ministry has confirmed that turnout was just over 50.6% of the electorate - the lowest, just, since the Islamic republic was born 25 years ago and well down on the 67% who voted in 2000.
The BBC’s Jim Muir says the size of the voter turnout is a key issue.
It is higher, he says, than the disqualified reformists would have liked, but it is hardly the ringing endorsement the conservative establishment had hoped for.
Turnout in Tehran - a stronghold for reformists - was only 33.8%.
Defeat for the reformists was particularly bitter in the capital, with even their top figure, the current parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi, looking unlikely to keep his seat.
Another significant feature of the result so far is that among the candidates returned there has not been a single woman - there were 13 in the outgoing reformist-dominated chamber.
Some pro-reform groups had called for a boycott of the poll, while supporters of clerical rule urged people to vote.
It follows seven years of attempted reform by President Mohammad Khatami, who has sought to allow greater freedom of speech and loosen Islamic cultural and social restrictions.
The decision to disqualify 2,300 reformist candidates - including 80 members of parliament - from standing was taken by the country’s hardline Council of Guardians, a 12-member vetting body partly appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei.
