Moderate leads in clerical election
A moderate former Iranian leader was far ahead in the race for a seat on a powerful clerical body, according to partial election results reported by state-run television.
Hashemi Rafsanjani had more than 1.5 million votes for a seat in the Assembly of Experts, a body of 86 senior clerics that monitors Iran’s supreme leader and chooses his successor, state TV said.
A victory for Rafsanjani would be seen as a setback for hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who defeated the former president in last year’s elections.
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