Jihadi Du Jour: Hardliners defeated in Iran's twin elections

Iranians have dealt a blow to President Ahmadinejad’s hardline Government, by thwarting his allies in municipal and clerical elections.

According to early results, Mr Ahmadinejad’s fundamentalist mentor who espouses cultural isolation from the West, was trailing sixth in the Tehran vote for the Assembly of Experts, Iran’s all-powerful clerical council. Reformists were also expected to seize a handful of seats on Tehran city council, signalling a comeback after three electoral defeats in the past three years.

While Friday’s twin elections may not have a direct impact on policy, the West will welcome any indication that Mr Ahmadinejad’s popularity is waning. It was the first nationwide vote since the populist swept to power 16 months ago.

The President put a brave face on the results. He said that the higher-than-expected turnout of about 60 per cent was a show of support for Iran’s Islamic system and claimed that this would help the country to confront its enemies.

“Friday’s elections were the most popular in the world,” he said. “The Iranian people have taken a decision to reach the summit of progress. As soon as they saw that the enemy wants to stop them doing something, they carried it out.”

The President’s critics interpreted the high turnout as a shift in the popular mood towards more moderate policies and away from his conservatism at home and confrontational stance abroad. They claim that Mr Ahmadinejad’s international defiance is a ruse to distract attention from failures at home. During the presidential elections, he promised to give the poor a fairer share of the country’s oil wealth, but he has yet to deliver on his pledge.

In the battle for the Tehran seat on the Assembly of Experts, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatic conservative and former President, was trouncing the hardline Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi and more than 400,000 votes ahead of his nearest rival.

Although small, the 86-member Assembly of Experts has more power than the President or parliament because it can appoint or dismiss Iran’s supreme leader. It has tended to remain out of everyday politics and that is likely to remain the case.