Iran vote a setback for president

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s opponents won local council elections across Iran that were widely viewed as a referendum on his 17 months in office, final results showed Thursday.

Since taking power, Ahmadinejad has escalated Iran’s confrontation with the U.S. and the West, drawing the threat of United Nations sanctions for pushing ahead with uranium enrichment in Iran’s nuclear program. He also has provoked international outrage for his harsh denunciation of Israel and comments describing the Holocaust as a myth.

His hard-line stances are believed to have divided the conservatives who voted him into power last year, with some believing that Ahmadinejad has been too focused on confronting the West and failed to deal with Iran’s struggling economy.

Moderate conservatives opposed to Ahmadinejad won a majority of the seats, followed by reformists who were suppressed by hard-liners in 2004, according to the final results announced by the Interior Ministry.

The reformists favor closer ties with the West and loosening of social and political restrictions under the Islamic regime.

In Tehran, candidates supporting Mayor Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, a moderate conservative, won seven of the 15 council seats. Reformists won four, and Ahmadinejad’s allies won three. The last seat went to wrestling champion Ali Reza Dabir, who won a gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and is considered an independent.

Final results for the rest of the country also showed a heavy defeat for Ahmadinejad supporters, and analysts said his allies won less than 20% of local council seats nationwide.