Conservatives are moving forward in the Iran election

According to the National Election Commission, the votes on Saturday afternoon had been counted in 162 out of the country's 208 constituencies.

According to the President of the Election Commission, the Conservatives and ultra-conservatives are leading this far.

The election concerns the 290 seats in Iran's parliament.

When polling stations closed at midnight in Friday's local time, about 40 percent of the population is estimated to have voted, in the capital Tehran only 30 percent, according to the semi-state news agency Fars.

The low turnout is likely to be seen in the light of the extensive street protests that erupted last year, and were brutally defeated in many quarters, as well as opposition Iranians' calls for a boycott of a political system described as hopelessly skewed and corrupt.

The elections in Iran are always tightly controlled, in such a way that the powerful Guardian Council controls who is allowed to run for the 290 seats in Majlis, the parliament in Tehran. This year, about half of the approximately 15,000 people who signed up received no. Even members who are not already sitting are safe - a third of them do not get the chance to be re-elected.

The votes are counted manually and, according to the Election Commission, the final election results are expected to be announced on Sunday morning.