Parliament is still hard core in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran -- The profile of Iran's new parliament took shape Sunday, with an outcome that the opposition had said was all but preordained: a hard-line core, even in the liberal bastion of Tehran.

There were fewer women and apparent gains for lawmakers holding atomic science backgrounds. One conservative leader said the new parliament may try to play a more prominent role in foreign policy and the nuclear sphere as the Islamic state confronts suspicions that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

The results from the Friday election had been widely expected after hard-liners barred more than 2,400 candidates, many of them reformers, from participating. Liberals had called for a nationwide voting boycott to spoil he conservatives' victory.

Turnout appeared to hover at around 50 percent, Interior Ministry sources said on condition of anonymity. More than 67 percent of voters turned out in the last parliament elections in 2000 in a pro- reform landslide.

The conservative bloc -- a mix of hard-liners and others considered loyal to the ruling clerics -- had won at least 135 seats in the 290-member chamber, according to Interior Ministry figures. In Tehran, previously a liberal stronghold, the conservatives were firmly in the lead. Reformers and self-described independents had about 65 seats overall.

That put conservatives on the threshold of the 146 seats needed to claim a majority.

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