TEHRAN, Iran, Dec. 18, 2006
Ahmadinejad Rivals Lead Iran Elections
Conservative Opponents Of Hardline President Have Edge In Key Local Races
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Iranian women fill in their ballot during city council and Expert Assembly elections, at a polling station, in Tehran on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. (AP)
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If the trend holds, the final results in local elections will be an embarrassment to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (AP)
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Final results from all municipal districts outside the capital, and partial results from the bellwether city of Tehran, showed the winners were mostly moderate conservatives opposed to the hardline president, rather than reformists.
If the trend holds, the final results will be an embarrassment to Ahmadinejad, whose anti-Israeli rhetoric and unyielding position on Iran's nuclear program have provoked condemnation in the West and moves toward sanctions at the U.N. Security Council.
Reformists were quick to cry victory.
"Early results show that Mr. Ahmadinejad's list has suffered a decisive defeat nationwide," said the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the largest reformist party, in a statement. "It is a big 'no' to the government's authoritarian and inefficient methods."
The pro-reformist newspaper Etemad-e-Melli published an editorial, based on the unofficial tallies that were circulation on Monday night, that said: "The most important message of Friday's vote was that the people have chosen moderation and rejected extremism."
A freelance Iranian journalist of reformist sympathies, Iraj Jamshidi, described the vote as "a blow to Ahmadinejad," who was elected in June 2005.
"After a year, Iranians have seen the consequences of the extremist policies employed by Ahmadinejad. Now, they have said a big 'no' to him," said Jamshidi.
The incomplete results announced by the Interior Ministry suggested that Ahmadinejad's allies had largely failed to win control of local councils across Iran.
In the key race for Tehran, the largest city, candidates supporting Mayor Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, a moderate conservative opposed to the president, had taken the lead.
The Interior Ministry said only about 500,000 votes had been counted so far in Tehran, about 20 percent of the expected turnout.
In the southern historical city of Shiraz, as well as in the provincial capitals of Rasht, northern Iran, and Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, not one pro-Ahmadinejad candidate won a seat on the city council.
The partial results also indicated, separately, that reformers might be making a partial comeback, after having been suppressed in the parliamentary elections of 2004 when many of their best candidates were barred from running.
From the results declared on Monday, it looked as if Qalibaf supporters were due to win seven of the 15 seats on the Tehran City Council and that reformists would get another four seats. Three seats would be won by the president's allies and one would go to an independent, according to the early results.
In the elections for the Assembly of Experts, a conservative body of 86 senior clerics that monitors Iran's supreme leader and chooses his successor, opponents of the president also appeared to have done well.
Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential election runoff, polled the most votes of any Tehran candidate to win a seat on the Assembly of Experts.
By contrast, an ally of the president, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, won an assembly seat with a low vote toll. Yazdi is regarded as Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor.
In another significant result, Hasan Rowhani, who was Iran's top nuclear negotiator under former President Mohammad Khatami, was elected to the assembly.
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly accused Rowhani of being too soft in negotiations with the Europeans.
Turnout overall was more than 60 percent — substantially higher than that of the 2002 local elections when turnout was about 50 percent, and marginally above that of the presidential elections last year when turnout was 59 percent.
Government officials have so far given no comment on the partial results. They were quick, however, to praise the turnout, saying it would send a strong message to the West that Iran is a democracy.
But a political analyst, Mostafa Mirzaeian, said Iran's political lineup was changing in favor of more-moderate voices — although he stressed those winning were still within the ruling Islamic establishment.
"Results also show that a new coalition has developed between reformers and moderate conservatives, at the expense of hard-line extremists who support Ahmadinejad," he said.
More than 233,000 candidates ran for more than 113,000 council seats in cities, towns and villages across the vast nation on Friday. Local councils elect city mayors and approve community budgets and planning projects.
All municipal council candidates, including some 5,000 women, were vetted by parliamentary committees dominated by hard-liners. The committees disqualified about 10,000 nominees, according to reports in Iranian newspapers.
©MMVI, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 24 CommentsI you had you have seen that nuclear technology given to India was offered to Ian if they gave up their enrichment program.'
Posted by Sevenveils
You Seven you don't know how type, do you?
Who is Ian?
In that regard there is little similarity between the United States and Iranian voting practices
I you had you have seen that nuclear technology given to India was offered to Ian if they gave up their enrichment program.
But that gives me an idea. Why cant we slant drill from florida and california to get at the oil off their respective coast? This should leave the marine environment intact.
JK dude....
Iranians and Americans two similar peoples looking for God-given freedom and decency.
Allows U.S. To Sell Civilian Nuclear Material And Know-How To India
Why isn't it possible to sell the Iranians the same technology as well? Onw can see the Iranians are getting there in term of Democracy and freedom of speech. Actually nobody thought of the intrisinc need for people to feel secured to express it's freedom of speech and democracy. If you are continously aggressed by neighbours,
your priorities go to the internal security and the need to prevent the invadors to come in. Once you secured the sealness of your borders and make sure is taking your land, the potential to full democracy and free expression is there.
Instability is the number one ennemy in a country. The Iranians have secured their own defence capacity and now are surprising the world with such inside democracy establishment. Hopefully they will mature enough to behave like a full responsible nation on the stage of the world, and they are.
Once the American people get to know this, and they may change their attitude toward the Iranian regime, and deal with them in a fair partnership way. They are a big nation of over 70 million consumers...
If America is looking to conquer other lands, well it, won't cost much to conquer the Iranian Hearts and access their market... Let's change the team we have at the white house and get to establish a more decent way of dealing with this decent nation.
Remember what started the first Gulf War, where Kuwait was slant drilling from their territory under the border into oil reserves under Iraqi territory? Well it is going on again and this time by most of those in the Region that call themselves the allies of the United States. The Saudi and Kuwaiti oil drilling sites are both drilling oil starting on their side of the border with the slant of the drilling process going under the border and into Iraqi territory. It is in the best interest of those business parties, partners and nations who border Iraq to keep the Iraq conflict going and keep chaos in the Iraqi government as long as possible so that this massive oil theft can continue on an International Scale. This is happening now and being paid for by the American Tax Payer and the lives of American Soldiers each day.
I think Iran is getting better. I didn't see any students get beat down this time and I haven't seen any canidates get pulled by the Ayatollha. If this was a completley free election. Wouldn't that make Iran a democracy? Could Bush's strategy be working?
Re: "Even if you believe Bush stole the first election, he was democratically elected in 2004, so what the hell are you talking about?"
The 2004 "elections" are also in question:
"Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings"
www.iefd.org/articles/gao_report.php
www.blackboxvoting.org
Even if you believe that Bush, the lesser, was legitamately elected in 2004, why would that be legitimate, since we know that he originally cheated and lied his way into power, via the 2000 election fraud conspiracy, starring Katherine Harris?
www.ericblumrich.com/gta.html
(speakers)
They look like beekeepers.
Even if you believe Bush stole the first election, he was democratically elected in 2004, so what the hell are you talking about?
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