Iran election seen as test of clerical rulers

STORY: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei casts his vote, the first to do so in all Iran.

He has called it a religious duty.

Iranians voted on Friday (March 1) in a parliamentary election that is seen as a test of the clerical establishment’s legitimacy.

As frustrations grow over economic woes and restrictions on political and social freedom.

“Make your friends happy,” Khamenei tells voters, urging them to turn out, “and disappoint the ill-wishers.”

In 2022, anti-government protests were sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini.

Pro-reform Iranians have…