One and a Half Cheers as Iran Elects a More Moderate President

There has been a plethora of elections in recent weeks, but perhaps the most surprising result was from the usually managed polls in Iran. The country’s reformist faction, relegated to near-irrelevance in parliament, won the presidency for the first time since 2001.

In the middle of May, such a change was unthinkable. The hardliners, or principlists as they refer to themselves, had the presidency and had just secured a dominant 199 seats out of 290 in parliament, up from 177 in 2020.