Top regime figures trumpeted what they said was a "massive turnout", and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the "totally free, healthy and legal" elections had dealt a massive blow to those urging a boycott.

He said that it was "the people who had emerged the winner in this election and it was the United States, the Zionists and the enemies of Iran who lost."

But with ballots still being counted, nationwide turnout appeared to be headed to around the 50 percent mark -- and just 28 percent in the capital -- a sharp drop from the last Majlis elections when two-thirds of the electorate took part.

This would be one of the lowest turnout figures since the 1979 Islamic revolution, but still above some dire predictions that only a tiny minority would rally behind the regime and its often awkward mix of theocracy and "Islamic democracy".

A blend of hardliners, conservatives and independents -- a label under which many other right-wingers have stood -- appeared set to replace a noisy but largely ineffectual reformist-held assembly.

Their win will further isolate embattled President Mohammad Khatami, whose final term ends in June 2005, and sound a death knoll for his effort to liberalise the country's political and social systems.

The hardline Guardians Council, the body behind the controversial mass blacklisting of over 2,000 reformist candidates and 87 sitting MPs, said Friday's vote would transform the Majlis into a body "guided by spirituality".

Those reformists who were approved and did not boycott were struggling to return just a handful of deputies to the 290-seat chamber. They were able to contest just over half of the seats up for grabs.

Definitive results were not expected before Monday.