Iranians vote in run-off parliamentary election

Iranians voted on Friday for Iran's run-off parliamentary election which is likely to have no impact on the firm control of conservatives after the disqualification of many reformists in the first round.

Conservatives won a majority of seats in the 290-member parliament in the first round of the election in March. Iranians will cast their votes to elect 82 lawmakers out of 164 running candidates in 100 cities, including the capital Tehran.

Moderate opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the vote was unfair because the unelected Guardian Council, which filters candidates on their commitment to Islam and Iran's clerical system, barred many of them from running in March.

Reformists, who secured more than 30 seats in the first round, have called for a high turn out because it would give the opposition a bigger voice. The new parliament will begin work in May.

The country's most powerful figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged Iranians to vote in a live television broadcast.

"This round is as important as the previous round ... God willing our dear nation ... will vote and a good assembly will be formed," Khamenei said, voting shortly after polls opened at 8 a.m. (4:30 a.m. British time).

Polling stations are due to close at 6 p.m. (2:30 p.m. British time), although this has been extended in past elections.

Before the March vote, Khamenei who usually prefers to stay above the political fray, called on voters to favour hardline candidates who supported the government.

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Khamenei has the last word on all state matters including Iran's disputed nuclear programme which the West fears is a cover to build nuclear bombs. Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

Hardline backers of Ahmadinejad support his no-compromise approach to the nuclear dispute with the West, but reformists and moderate conservatives blame him for provoking the U.N. Security Council to hit Iran with three rounds of sanctions.

Mohammad Yazdi, a 23-year-old civil engineering student, said it was his duty to vote.

"I will vote because the Supreme Leader has ordered all Iranians to vote in the election," Yazdi told Reuters after casting his vote in an eastern Tehran polling station.

Ahmadinejad, who won the presidency in 2005 pledging to share out Iran's oil wealth more fairly, has come under mounting pressure from the public, top clerics and the outgoing parliament over his failure to control Iran's hiking inflation, now over 20 percent.

Analysts say despite conservatives' dominance, the next parliament will be more vocal in its criticism of Ahmadinejad's economic management because the conservative camp in the assembly includes not just his allies, but critics as well.