Al Jazeera News, Hamburg :More than 1,000 refugees, migrants and activists met in Hamburg for a conference focusing on the challenges refugees face in Europe and on migration routes.The conference, which started Friday and ends on Sunday, included discussions on European borders, changes to asylum legislation, and the interplay of racism and sexism in the 290-seat parliament. But reformists seeking greater democratic changes are heading towards their strongest presence since 2004 at the expense of hardliners. Officials have yet to release early results, but reports in the semi-official Fars and Mehr news agencies and a count conducted by The Associated Press news agency show that hardliners are the main losers of the vote.Friday’s election for Iran’s parliament and the powerful clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts was the first since Iran’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers last year.Reformists seeking greater democratic changes and moderates supporting Rouhani appear to be cashing in on the lifting of international sanctions the moderate president achieved under last summer’s historic agreement.Nearly 55 million of Iran’s 80 million people were eligible to vote. Participation figures and other statistics were not immediately available, though Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli predicted late Thursday that there would be a turnout of 70 percent.Polls were closed at midnight and officials immediately began counting the ballots afterwards. As more ballots were counted, reformists appeared to be on the path to expand their presence -from the fewer than 20 they currently hold to a majority with the moderate conservatives – and reduce the number of hardliners.Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from Tehran, said while reformists and moderates were “expected to hold sway” in the capital, no one expected a countrywide landslide. On Saturday, partial results emerging from about 50 small towns across Iran showed reformists and their moderate allies were leading the vote.
