Iran reformists question counting in elections

Tehran: Staunch opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained on Monday about vote counting in Iran's parliamentary election, in which conservatives have retained their grip on the assembly, a news agency reported.

Full results from Friday's vote have yet to be announced, but the Interior Ministry said conservatives who call themselves "principlist" for their loyalty to the Islamic Republic's values had 74 per cent of seats decided so far. Parliament has 290 seats.

"We have complaints about the method of counting votes," the spokesman of the reformist National Trust party, Esmail Gerami-Moghaddam, told Iran's ISNA news agency.

"We want the Interior Ministry to announce the result of vote counting at each station through their website," he said.

Mohammad Hussain Mousapour, deputy head of the ministry's election headquarters, told a news conference the parliament election had been "unique and unprecedented regarding not having voting irregularities".

Conservatives will again dominate the assembly. But Ahmadinejad may not get an easy ride because the camp is broad and includes political rivals who may use parliament as a springboard to launch into next year's presidential race.

"The result of parliamentary election does not mean the government was victorious," said Amir Ali Amiri, secretary for the Inclusive Coalition, a conservative group backed by Ahmadinejad's rivals, Iran's ISNA news agency reported.

"Conservative critics of the government will have a majority in the next parliament," Amiri said.

One analyst said Ahmadinejad's core support in parliament may have shrunk to about a quarter of seats, down from roughly two-thirds in the outgoing assembly.

The lack of disciplined parties in Iran makes precise figures difficult to obtain. The vote will not directly impact nuclear, oil or foreign policy, which are all ultimately determined by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei under Iran's system of clerical rule.

Many reformists, who seek political and social change, were barred from even entering the race by a pre-vote vetting procedure they say aimed to hand victory to conservatives.