Preliminary results from an election for Iran’s parliament showed significant gains for reformist and moderate allies of President Hassan Rouhani, who captured 29 seats out of the 30 reserved for the capital Tehran, according to tallies from state-run media.

“The competition is now over,” Rouhani said in a message published on his website hours before the results were officially announced. “It’s time for the people and the government to speak with the same voice, step onto a new path, and by relying on our domestic capability and making use of international opportunities start a new chapter in the growth and blossoming of the national economy.”

Moderates also took an early lead in a separate vote for the Assembly of Experts, a top clerical body that may select Iran’s next supreme leader. In all, the elections could help shape the country’s future amid a debate over ties with the West and the recent lifting of economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program.

Assembly of Experts

Candidates from a list headed by Rouhani and his ally, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, had a commanding lead in the Assembly of Experts election in Tehran, according to preliminary results announced on state-run television. Sixteen seats in that 88-member body are reserved for the capital.

The early vote count showed that one of Iran’s most hardline clerics, Mohammad Taghi-Mesbah Yazdi, will probably lose his seat. The 82-year-old is known in Iran for his strict views and opposition to reforms.

Results were based on about 1.3 million votes counted in Tehran, which has an electorate of some 8 million, according to state television. Tallies for the rest of the country were awaited.

Millions of Iranians voted on Friday in the first elections since the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers. A victory for moderate clerics and politicians would strengthen Rouhani’s hand in opening the economy to foreign investments in the face of hardliners who control institutions such as the judiciary and the Revolutionary Guards.

The initial Assembly of Experts results reflect a “vote of confidence by the most politicized segment of the Iranian society for Rouhani and Rafsanjani’s vision of a more pluralistic polity that is integrated into the global economy,” said Ali Vaez, senior Iran analyst at the New York-based International Crisis Group. “Ultra-conservatives are on their back foot, but not defeated.”

Supreme Leader

The Assembly of Experts is in charge of nominating the nation’s supreme leader, who has final say on all state matters, if the post becomes vacant. The position has been held by 76- year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989.

Rouhani, the architect of a diplomatic U-turn that led to the nuclear accord and the removal of global sanctions, wants to translate his foreign-policy coup into benefits for Iranians ahead of the 2017 presidential race, when he might seek a second term. For foreign investors eyeing a relatively untapped nation of 77 million consumers, a victory for moderates more in tune with the president’s agenda could speed market-opening laws.

Turnout for the parliamentary vote was more than 60 percent, according to authorities. Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said earlier he hoped as much as 80 percent of votes cast in provinces would be counted by the end of the day.