"CHANGE" - Ahmadinejad rivals rack up parliament wins in Iran.

"CHANGE" - Ahmadinejad rivals rack up parliament wins in Iran.(AA).Conservative rivals of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared on course Saturday to gain firm control of parliament after elections that could embolden Iran’s nuclear defiance and give the ruling clerics a clear path to ensure a loyalist succeeds Ahmadinejad next year.
Although Iran’s 290-seat parliament has limited sway over key affairs - including military and nuclear policies - the elections highlight the political narratives inside the country since Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009 and sets the possible tone for his final 18 months in office.
Reformists were virtually absent from the ballot, showing the crushing force of crackdowns on the opposition. Instead, Friday’s elections became a referendum on Ahmadinejad’s political stature after he tried to challenge the near-total authority of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to decide critical government policies such as intelligence and foreign affairs.
The apparent setbacks for Ahmadinejad’s backers, according to early results, could signal a decisive blow in the internal political conflicts and give hard-liners an even stronger voice in Iran’s showdowns over its nuclear program.
The results also greatly reduce Ahmadinejad’s leverage to have a protégé clear the ruling clerics’ election vetting process and become a candidate to succeed him in mid-2013. It now seems likely that only staunch Khamenei loyalists could be in the running.
“It appears that the era of ‘Ahmadinejadism’ in Iran’s political history is gradually coming to an end,” said prominent Tehran-based political analyst Davoud Hermidas Bavand.“Under the present Cold War we are in, this election will increase our national security. It will make the U.S. and the West change its tone toward us,” said Mohammad Reza Bahanor, a hard-line lawmaker seeking re-election.
He predicted 80 percent of the winners belong to a group known as the ultraconservative Motahed, or United Front, which is the main anti-Ahmadinejad group. Full official results, however, were not expected until Sunday at the earliest.
Out of 197 winners that emerged by midday Saturday, at least 102 were conservatives who turned against Ahmadinejad after he openly challenged Khamenei. Also elected were six independent candidates opposed to Ahmadinejad.
Among the prominent anti-Ahmadinejad victors were: Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, whose daughter is married to Khamenei’s son; and parliament speaker Ali Larijani, who was Iran’s former nuclear negotiator.
Last month, lawmakers approved a petition to summon Ahmadinejad for public questioning over a long list of accusations, including corruption and his high-profile feud with Khamenei.
The parliament - which remains in session until the new chamber is seated in May - is expected to demand Ahmadinejad appear early next week, which would make him the first president ever to be dragged before lawmakers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Ahmadinejad is almost politically spent,” said the analyst Bevand.
But others, such as political commentator Ali Reza Khamesian, said it’s still too early to fully count Ahmadinejad out. “He won’t give up,” he said.
His spectacular falling out with Iran’s ruling theocracy underscores the lopsided nature of Iran’s political establishment. The president may be the international envoy of the country, but all the real power rests with the theocrats and their guardians, including the military-industrial machine of the Revolutionary Guard.
Interior Minister Mostafa Mohmmad Najjar said turnout in Friday’s election was 64.2 percent among 48 million eligible voters. That would be significantly higher than the 57 percent in the 2008 parliamentary elections. If confirmed, the figure will be used by authorities to try to discredit the opposition’s strength and their backing in the West.
“International media were surprised by the high turnout,” state TV proclaimed Saturday. “It was a slap in the face of the U.S.” The front-page headline in the hard-line daily Kayhan Saturday said the enemy was “checkmated.” Read the full story here.