Iran has started counting votes in its parliamentary election, state TV said on Saturday, in which hardline allies of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are likely to gain a seizable majority based on preliminary results, Eurasia Diary reports citing Reuters.

Iranian authorities have yet to announce the turnout in Feb. 21 election for the 290-seat parliament — a litmus test of the popularity of hardliners.

Some early results announced by the Interior Ministry indicated that the hardline loyalists to Khamenei were gaining a majority in the 290-seat parliament.

“So far, 42 seats of the parliament had been won outright by candidates,” state TV said. According to a Reuters tally of those results, over 80 percent of them are loyalists to Khamenei.

Iran’s rulers, under intense U.S. pressure over the country’s nuclear program, need a high turnout to boost their legitimacy that was damaged after nationwide protests in November. The demonstrations were met with a violent crackdown that deepened resentment over economic hardship and corruption.

The spokesman for the watchdog Guardian Council Abbasali Kadkhodai predicted that the turnout will be around 50%, telling state television on Friday that the Iranian nation had disappointed its enemies by voting in large numbers.