Iranian election results
Ahmadinejad allies trail in Iran vote battlegrounds by Aresu Eqbali Mon Dec 18, 12:36 PM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - Ultra-conservative allies of Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad are lagging in key election battlegrounds after gains by
moderate conservatives and a solid reformist showing.
Ahmadinejad loyalists trailed in the fight for Tehran city council,
well behind moderate conservatives close to the city’s current mayor,
according to partial results from Friday’s voting.
Centrist ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has also sprung a
surprise with a landslide win in the election for the Assembly of
Experts in Tehran province, thrashing a cleric seen as Ahmadinejad’s
spiritual mentor.
The double vote for municipal councils and the Assembly of Experts –
the body which chooses the supreme leader — was seen as the first
popularity test for Ahmadinejad since he swept to power in 2005.
The authorities hailed a turnout that exceeded 60 percent for both
votes and thus topped the relatively feeble participation figures
from previous similar polls.
Across the country, Ahmadinejad allies were left well short of their
aim of taking control of city councils nationwide, where seats were
shared out between a sprinkling of hardliners, moderates and reformists.
The first results for Tehran city council showed allies of moderate
conservative mayor Mohammad Qalibaf took an early lead, leaving the
hardliners trailing in their wake.
Allies of Qalibaf were on course to be the biggest faction on the 15-
member council with a total of eight seats, according to partial
results based on 23 percent of the 2.2 million ballots.
Four reformists were also on course to win seats — including Olympic
taekwondo champion Hadi Saei — a marked improvement from the last
local vote in 2003 when they lost all their places on the formerly
reformist-dominated council.
Hardliners were due to pick up three, with the other place going to
independent Ali Reza Dabir, a former world wrestling champion close
to the technocratic Qalibaf.
Only two candidates from Ahmadinejad’s “Sweet Scent of Service” list
were in the top 15, including his sister Parvin who was trailing in
11th place.
Tehran city council is one of the most crucial battlegrounds of the
entire election. The city has provided a launch pad for politicians
hungry for success on a national scale, most notably its ex-mayor
Ahmadinejad.
In the Assembly of Experts vote, Rafsanjani won over half a million
votes more than the second placed candidate and trounced Mohammad
Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a hardline cleric close to Ahmadinejad, who came
sixth.
The results represent a significant reversal of fortune for
Rafsanjani, a 71-year-old former president, after his humiliating
election defeat to Ahmadinejad in 2005.
His popularity appears to have been helped by a growing alliance with
reformists, a fact symbolised by pictures of Rafsanjani voting side-
by-side with liberal ex-president Mohammad Khatami widely published
in the press.
“One lesson that has been learned for the Assembly of Experts vote is
for Rafsanjani’s supporters. They should appreciate unity and
moderation,” said the centrist Kargozaran daily.
As Iranian leaders hailed the “epic” turnout, reformist officials
were left grumbling over a counting process that in Tehran was taking
days to complete.
All the headlines in reformist and centrist papers referred to a
meeting between Khatami, Rafsanjani and reformist cleric Mehdi
Karroubi about “concerns” over the vote counting.
“We need to know why the interior ministry is not announcing the
results. According to our information the reformists are ahead (in
Tehran),” said Esmail Gerami, a spokesman for Karroubi’s reformist
party, according to the ISNA agency.
The Sweet Scent of Service list also expressed concerns, calling for
a recount of the vote. “Unfortunately we are seeing very serious
irregularities and errors in the use of the computerised counting,”
it said.