In the latest electoral confrontation in Iran an alliance between moderates and reformists cornered the conservatives, writes Rasha Saad Partial results from Friday's key elections in Iran suggest a setback for conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranians voted in two elections: for the powerful clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, and the local government -- both seen as the first test of public support for Ahmadinejad since he came to power. Final results are not expected until next week, but with around 20 per cent of the Tehran votes counted, Ahmadinejad's supporters are reportedly in a minority with candidates supporting moderate conservative Tehran's Mayor Mohamed Bagher Qalibaf ahead. Powerful pragmatic cleric Hashemi Rafsanjani, defeated by Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential elections, easily topped the assembly poll in Tehran, which elects 16 members of the 86-seat body, while fundamentalist clerics sympathetic to Ahmadinejad won fewer than 10 seats nationwide. In local elections, the vast majority of seats went to reformists, moderate conservatives, independents and fundamentalists critical of Ahmadinejad. According to reports, not a single candidate supporting the president won a seat on councils in the key cities of Shiraz, Rasht or Bandar Abbas. Rafsanjani's performance appears to have been helped by an alliance with reformist forces that allowed moderates to present a single list, presented as a bastion against extremism. Nothing symbolised this unity more than the highly symbolic act of Rafsanjani casting his vote in Friday's elections side-by-side with former reformist President Mohamed Khatami. The picture of the two ex-presidents -- their two turbaned heads bowed over the ballot box -- was reprinted on the front pages of all the liberal press the next day. The alliance with Khatami has not sprung from nowhere. President from 1989-1997, Rafsanjani did everything he could to ensure Khatami succeeded him by defeating a hard-line rival. Reformists hailed the early results. The Islamic Iran Participation Front said: "It is a big 'no' to the government's authoritarian and inefficient methods." The Front, Iran's biggest reformist party, said Monday that Ahmadinejad had suffered a "decisive defeat nationwide". In a defiant mood, Ahmadinejad's supporters tried to underplay the impact of the initial results. The government's spokesman countered by saying the government had no favoured candidates in Friday's twin votes and was happy to work with the winners. However, for many analysts the message is loud and clear and is likely to increase pressure on Ahmadinejad to change his policies. The high turnout on Friday was seen as contributing to the victory of the reformists. The number contrasted sharply with the last city elections in Tehran, in 2003, which was logged at only 12 per cent after reformist supporters boycotted the elections in protest of what they complained was the failure of reformists to create their promised more liberal society. Their act led to victory for the conservatives. The lesson was learnt. "A lot of students are saying that they will vote for the reformers," said Sajad Ghoroghi, a graduate student at Amir Kabir University who has decided to vote despite his disillusionment with the reformist camp. "Voting does not mean that we approve of what the reformers did during the eight years they were in power," he said. "We want to vote to stop the current situation." Friday's elections took place only a week after Iranian students disrupted a speech by Ahmadinejad at the Amir Kabir University, setting fire to posters bearing his picture. The same university was the scene of a protest the day before by hundreds of students denouncing a crackdown on a reformist-led university association. "Some students chanted radical slogans and inflamed the atmosphere of the meeting," said the semi-official Fars News Agency, which is close to Ahmadinejad. "A small number of students shouted 'death to the dictator' and smashed the cameras of state television, but they were confronted by a bigger group of students in the hall chanting: 'We support Ahmadinejad'," it said. It was the latest in a series of student demonstrations, the first time in at least two years that such protests have taken place on this scale in Iranian universities. A group of Amir Kabir's top students had earlier expressed objections to the government's economic and political agenda as well as "confrontation with student activists and ridding universities of independent lecturers". "Bankrupting the country's industry, inflation, proliferation of poverty, defacement of the country's international image and playing with the nation's fate in diplomatic issues," were among the points brought up in a statement. Between 2,000 and 3,000 students also demonstrated at Tehran University Wednesday to mark Students' Day, chanting slogans such as "for freedom and against despotism", the Iranian Students News Agency reported. Reformist newspapers such as Sharg were closed down this year, intellectuals were reined in and the internationally known philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo was arrested, although later freed on bail. Civil protest became difficult and intellectuals are now indulging in self-censorship. Reformists suggest that unease over the international situation and its consequences, especially for private business, had turned many voters against Ahmadinejad. "There is going to be a rethink at the top, and this is the real importance of the election," Mostafa Tajzadeh, a leading official in the reformist party Mosharekat, told the Associated Press.
