Iran has begun voting in its first parliamentary elections since the mass 2022 protests over its mandatory hijab laws after the death of Mahsa Amini, with questions looming over how many people will turn out for the poll.
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Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 84, cast one of the first votes in an election that also will choose members of the country's Assembly of Experts.
The panel of clerics, who serve an eight-year term, is mandated to select a new supreme leader if Khamenei steps down or dies, giving their role increased importance with Khamenei's age.
Khamenei voted before a crowd of journalists in Tehran, urging people to vote as soon as possible, saying both Iran's friends and enemies were watching the turnout.
"Make the friends happy and make the enemies hopeless," he said on Friday.
Initial election results are expected as soon as Saturday.
Some 15,000 candidates are vying for a seat in the 290-member parliament.
Terms run for four years, and five seats are reserved for Iran's religious minorities.
The parliament has oversight over the executive branch, votes on treaties and handles other issues, but in practice, absolute power rests with Iran's supreme leader.
Under Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the legislature pushed forward a bill in 2020 that greatly curtailed Tehran's co-operation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
That followed then-president Donald Trump's unilateral withdrawal of America from Iran's nuclear deal with world powers in 201, an act that saw Iran enrich enough uranium to have enough fuel for "several" nuclear weapons if it chose.
More recently, the parliament has focused on issues surrounding Iran's mandatory head covering, or hijab, for women after the 2022 death of 22-year-old Amini in police custody, which sparked nationwide protests.
The protests quickly escalated into calls to overthrow Iran's clerical rulers.
A subsequent security crackdown killed more than 500 people, with more than 22,000 detained.
Calls for an election boycott have spread in recent weeks, including from imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, a women's right activist, who called them a "sham".
The boycott calls have put the government under renewed pressure - since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's theocracy has based its legitimacy in part on turnout in elections.
The state-owned polling centre ISPA predicts a turnout of 24 per cent in the capital, Tehran, and 39 per cent nationally.
Australian Associated Press
