It has long been depressingly obvious that last Friday’s elections to the Iranian parliament were not going to be a cliffhanger. As soon as the faction of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, an overlap of fundamentalists and more worldly vested interests of the Islamic Republic, came under challenge from reformists and pragmatic conservatives led by two former presidents, the regime’s enforcers and mullahs sprang into preventive action.

The success of the interior ministry and Council of Guardians, a theocratic watchdog, in rooting out and disqualifying candidates who challenged the government, guaranteed Mr Ahmadi-Nejad would continue to hold sway in the Majlis.