Ahmadinejad's clout faces test as Iran votes Updated at 8:35 a.m. (CBS/AP) TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader urged Iranians to vote in large numbers as the country held parliamentary elections Friday, saying a high turnout would send a strong message to the enemies of the nation in the nuclear standoff with the West. The balloting for the 290-member parliament is the first major voting since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009 and the mass protests and crackdowns that followed. It is unlikely to change Iran's course over major policies - including its controversial nuclear program - regardless of who wins, but it may shape the political landscape for a successor to Ahmadinejad in 2013. CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that more than 3,000 candidates are running in the current elections, but all of them are conservatives. No matter who wins Friday's election the hardliners will be in charge. The elections amount to a popularity contest between conservative supporters of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and their rivals who back Ahmadinejad. Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters in Iran, said it was a "duty and a right" for every eligible Iranian to vote, especially now that the "Iranian nation is at a more sensitive period" amid the confrontation with the West. "Because of the controversies over Iran and increased verbal threats ... the more people come to the polling stations, the better for the country," Khamenei said after casting his ballot in Tehran early Friday. "The higher the turnout, the better for the future, prestige and security of our country," he added. A high turnout will be seen as a major boost for Iran's ruling Islamic system, showing popular support and allowing it to stand firm in its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. The West suspects Iran's program is geared toward making nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it's for peaceful purposes only, such as energy production. Below, watch a preview of a "60 Minutes" segment to be broadcast Sunday on the Stuxnet virus that sabotaged the Iranian nuclear program While the country's stance on Israel and nuclear progress is unlikely to change with the election, Palmer reports that Iran's economy is changing dramatically. U.S. and European sanctions -- designed to pressure Iran over its nuclear ambitions -- are starting to hurt Iran's residents. The prices of ground meat and tea are up 50 percent since January. And as the Iranian currency has lost nearly half its value against the U.S. dollar, the cost of imported items -- like machinery and medicine -- is skyrocketing. That economic crisis, Palmer reports, will only get worse as new, even tougher sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran's oil revenue are due to take effect in June. The White House hopes that tough commitment to financial pressure will persuade Israel to back away from the possibility of launching a military strike on Iran, an approach the U.S. believes is shortsighted. President Obama will make that case directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday when the two leaders meet at the White House. Iranian state TV went live from several polling stations in Tehran and the provinces, showing long lines of people waiting to vote, followed by a commentary saying the lines were a "disappointment to the bad-wishers." It claimed the U.S. and its allies were hoping for a low turnout that would show divisions and a weakened Islamic theocracy, making it easier for the West to pressure Iran over the nuclear issue. The TV headlines proclaimed the elections as a day of "national solidarity" and a "rebirth of the nation." In the absence of major reformist parties, which were kicked off the political stage over the 2009 post-election turmoil, Friday's vote is seen as a political battleground for competing conservative factions supporting Khamenei and those backing Ahmadinejad. The two groups were once united but turned against each other after crushing reformists in the upheavals that followed Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election. The split dates back to last year, when many conservatives turned into strong critics of Ahmadinejad after he dared challenge Khamenei over the choice of intelligence chief in April and other policies. A defeat for Ahmadinejad's supporters would virtually guarantee a Khamenei loyalist as the next president and present a seamless front against Western efforts to curb Iran's enrichment program.