Voting Starts in Iran's Parliamentary Elections. UPDATE: Iranian election results suggest rocky time for Ahmadinejad

Polls close in Iran, vote count begins
The polls have closed in Iran’s parliamentary election after voting was extended for five hours, and the process of counting ballots has begun.

The polling stations closed at 11:00 p.m. local time on Friday after Iranian election officials extended voting for the ninth parliamentary election, which was originally scheduled to end at 6:00 p.m.

Afterwards, Election Headquarters director Seyyed Solat Mortazavi said the results would be announced in 48 to 72 hours.

Officials reported that over 31 million ballots had been cast by 9:00 p.m., indicating an overall voter turnout of 64.6 percent.

Over 48 million Iranian citizens were eligible to vote in the election, 3.9 million of them for the first time.



[link to presstv.com]

Iran Elections: 48 million voters denied information, 48 journalists denied freedom

On the eve of tomorrow’s parliamentary elections in Iran, Reporters Without Borders condemns the censorship imposed on the media, which prevents them from playing their role during the polling, and the continuing, relentless crackdown on journalists.

Iran’s 48 million voters are being denied the independently-reported news and information they need to make a choice. The crackdown on journalists and netizens has intensified. No independent media has been spared the political and judicial harassment that the various ruling clans have orchestrated since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed reelection in June 2009.

A total of 48 journalists and netizens are currently detained, making Iran the world’s third biggest prison for the media.


[link to www.payvand.com]

Iran's first elections since '09 unrest mark a stark contrast

With reformists kept off the ballot, this vote is largely about hard-liners positioning themselves for the 2013 presidential vote.

[link to www.latimes.com]

Younger sister of Iran’s Ahmadinejad fails to win parliamentary seat in president’s hometown

TEHRAN, Iran — The younger sister of Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday failed to win a parliamentary seat in Ahmadinejad’s hometown as the president’s conservative rivals won a big portion of the seats in early returns.

[link to www.washingtonpost.com]

Iranian election results suggest rocky time for Ahmadinejad

Conservative rivals of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are leading in the race for Iranian parliament seats, according to early election results. In a huge embarrassment, Parvin Ahmadinejad, a younger sister of the president, was defeated by a conservative rival in their hometown of Garmsar.

[link to www.bbc.co.uk]

Iran election's initial results trickle in
Early unofficial results have begun to come in after Iranians finished voting in parliamentary elections for the country's 290-seat assembly, with state media reporting major wins for supporters of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader

[link to www.aljazeera.com]

So what will this mean for the (nuclear) future of Iran?