Reformers trouncing conservatives in landmark Iranian
elections
TEHRAN, March 3 (AFP) - Reformists close to moderate Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami were trouncing their conservative competitors, who have
long held the reins of power, according to nationwide municipal election
results published Wednesday.
In Tehran, a city of 10 million people, the reform list headed by former
interior minister Abdollah Nuri took 13 of the 15 municipal council seats
in Friday's first-ever municipal elections in Iran.
Nuri himself won 169,592 votes out of the 468,434 which had been counted
as of noon Wednesday in Tehran, the biggest plum in the elections.
The reform candidate Jamileh Kadivar, an aide to Khatami and wife of
moderate Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani, was the third highest votegetter
in the capital, according to the results put out by the interior ministry.
Another reform candidate who looked like a winner was Mohammad Ibrahim
Asqarzadeh, one of those responsible for the 1979 hostage taking at the
US embassy in Tehran who became the leader of a pro-Khatami student union.
Khatami supporters also led the way in the provinces of Mashhad in the
northeast, Kerman in the south, East Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran and
Isfahan in the country's center.
The conservative pilgrimage city of Mashhad gave reform candidates five
of the nine city council seats.
In Kerman city, there were four reformist winners, including two women,
while the conservatives claimed at least one council seat.
Azeri-speaking Tabriz, the main city in East Azerbaijan, saw reform
candidates win at least five of the 11 city council seats.
In the reformist stronghold of Isfahan, a center for tourism and industry,
pro-Khatami candidates got six of the 11 municipal slots while conservative-backed
candidates won three.
Throughout the country, residents of smaller towns also tended to support
the reformers.
Out of the 300,000 candidates who ran in the elections, 4,000 were women.
They put up a strong showing, as exemplified by the victory of reformist
President Mohammad Khatami's sister, Fatemeh, in the central desert town
of Ardakan.
She said Tuesday she garnered 16,000 votes, three times more than her
closest rival.
The interior ministry said the total number of votes cast could reach
about 25 million out of 40 million possible.
That would come close to the record set in the 1997 presidential elections,
in which 29 million Iranians participated.
Final results will be published in the coming days, the ministry said.
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