A New Majlis

Iranians turned out in record numbers last week for a parliamentary election that ended 28 months of government by royal decree. The result was a lopsided victory for Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, whose sweeping, courageous reforms have made him the darling of the downtrodden.

Ousted from the Majlis (parliament) were the landlords who systematically gutted the Shah's attempts to modernize Iran's feudal way of life. Swept into office was a group of new men -- land reformers, labor representatives and economic experts-- almost all of whom had never been elected to anything before. Among the new faces: six women, including the wife of the mayor of Teheran. All were hand-picked by the Shah's National Union, which won 171 of the Majlis' 200 seats, according to nearly complete returns from an estimated 3,000,000 voters.

For a change, the government could boast of an honest election. "Live men voted," proclaimed Premier Assadollah Alam, aware of the departure from the old days when corpses' votes were stuffed into the ballot boxes by the thousands. No longer did landlords transport villagers to the polls in trucks, with their prepaid votes in hand. For the first time in a parliamentary election, veiled women in wrap-around chadors lined up with the menfolk at polling booths. Although the Shah put anti-reform Moslem mullahs (priests) under house arrest, barred political rallies, and closed up 75 Teheran dailies and weeklies, his most vociferous critics agreed that the crackdown was unnecessary.

The Shah's land reforms have given new luster to the Peacock Throne. Massive U.S. aid ($1.5 billion since 1948) and record oil revenues of nearly $400 million this year have restored financial stability to the country. Even if the election campaign had been wide open, the Shah would have won by a landslide. Jubilant over the results, the Shah flew off to the remote region of Luristan in western Iran. There, as natives pounded big sheepskin drums in noisy greeting, he handed out land deeds to 6,000 more peasant families.

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