As Iran scares the Middle East, at home its regime rots

The resultsBBC of the shah’s last election were a triumph. His party won all 268 seats. Officially, nearly half of the electorate voted in 1975. But when revolution erupted in 1979 his party melted away. The elections on March 1st for Iran’s parliament and assembly of experts, which selects the supreme leader, share similar traits. Unlike previous polls, when pragmatists and reformists could stand, all but ardent hardliners have been disqualified, including a former president, Hassan Rouhani. Hence loyalists will sweep the board.But as the regime purges its reformists, it shrinks to its inner core. In its hunger to monopolise power, it hollows out the state. Once a hybrid theocracy-cum-democracy, Iran is morphing into an absolute dictatorship with a wobbly base. Clerical quangos increasingly override parliament, reducing the latter to a talking-shop. A recent government survey leaked to the Persian service shows haemorrhaging support for the theocrats. According to the poll, support for a separation of religion and state has jumped from 31% in 2015 to 73% today. “Yes-men are wonderful when things are calm, but they’re useless under crisis,” says a political analyst frequently in Iran. “Without an opposition you lose the bridge to the people.”