Iran election turnout drops to 41% as reformists criticise poll

Conservatives expected to remain firmly in charge as parts of media claim ‘election boycott campaign’ has failed

The turnout in Iran’s parliamentary elections appears to have dropped to 41%, a record low, but according to the official figures not quite to the levels of untenable mass abstention that some previous surveys had predicted.

Polls closed at midnight on Friday, six hours later than planned due to what officials claimed was a second surge in polls in the evening, but in the capital Tehran’s middle class stayed away, with fewer than 24% of the 8 million eligible to vote bothering to do so.