IRAN:Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was facing electoral embarrassment yesterday after the apparent failure of his supporters to win control of key councils and block the political comeback of his most powerful opponent.
Early results from Friday's election suggested his Sweet Scent of Service coalition had won three out of 15 seats on the symbolically important Tehran city council, foiling Mr Ahmadinejad's plan to oust the mayor. The outcome appeared to be mirrored elsewhere, with councils returning a majority of reformists and moderate fundamentalists opposed to the president.
A further setback was the success of Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatist and fierce critic of the president's radical policies. Mr Rafsanjani, who was defeated in last year's presidential election, received the most votes in elections to a clerical body empowered to appoint and remove Iran's supreme leader. Ayatollah Mohammed-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, the president's presumed spiritual mentor, came sixth.
Analysts attributed Mr Rafsanjani's resurgence to his new-found status as a saviour of the reformists, the liberal movement that, when it was in power in parliament, shunned him as a hated symbol of the establishment. Mr Rafsanjani has been increasingly identified with reformists since last year's presidential election as an anti-Ahmadinejad figure.
The Tehran results represented a victory for the mayor, Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, a pragmatic conservative who is seen as a future rival to Mr Ahmadinejad.