TEHRAN (AFP) - Ultra-conservative allies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are lagging in key election battlegrounds after gains by moderate conservatives and a solid reformist showing.
Ahmadinejad loyalists trailed in the fight for Tehran city council, well behind moderate conservatives close to the city's current mayor, according to partial results from Friday's voting.
Centrist ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has also sprung a surprise with a landslide win in the election for the Assembly of Experts in Tehran province, thrashing a cleric seen as Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor.
The double vote for municipal councils and the Assembly of Experts -- the body which chooses the supreme leader -- was seen as the first popularity test for Ahmadinejad since he swept to power in 2005.
The authorities hailed a turnout that exceeded 60 percent for both votes and thus topped the relatively feeble participation figures from previous similar polls.
Across the country, Ahmadinejad allies were left well short of their aim of taking control of city councils nationwide, where seats were shared out between a sprinkling of hardliners, moderates and reformists.
The first results for Tehran city council showed allies of moderate conservative mayor Mohammad Qalibaf took an early lead, leaving the hardliners trailing in their wake.
Allies of Qalibaf were on course to be the biggest faction on the 15- member council with a total of eight seats, according to partial results based on 23 percent of the 2.2 million ballots.
Four reformists were also on course to win seats -- including Olympic taekwondo champion Hadi Saei -- a marked improvement from the last local vote in 2003 when they lost all their places on the formerly reformist-dominated council.
Hardliners were due to pick up three, with the other place going to independent Ali Reza Dabir, a former world wrestling champion close to the technocratic Qalibaf.
Only two candidates from Ahmadinejad's "Sweet Scent of Service" list were in the top 15, including his sister Parvin who was trailing in 11th place.
Tehran city council is one of the most crucial battlegrounds of the entire election. The city has provided a launch pad for politicians hungry for success on a national scale, most notably its ex-mayor Ahmadinejad.
In the Assembly of Experts vote, Rafsanjani won over half a million votes more than the second placed candidate and trounced Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a hardline cleric close to Ahmadinejad, who came sixth.
The results represent a significant reversal of fortune for Rafsanjani, a 71-year-old former president, after his humiliating election defeat to Ahmadinejad in 2005.
His popularity appears to have been helped by a growing alliance with reformists, a fact symbolised by pictures of Rafsanjani voting side- by-side with liberal ex-president Mohammad Khatami widely published in the press.
"One lesson that has been learned for the Assembly of Experts vote is for Rafsanjani's supporters. They should appreciate unity and moderation," said the centrist Kargozaran daily.
As Iranian leaders hailed the "epic" turnout, reformist officials were left grumbling over a counting process that in Tehran was taking days to complete.
All the headlines in reformist and centrist papers referred to a meeting between Khatami, Rafsanjani and reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi about "concerns" over the vote counting.
"We need to know why the interior ministry is not announcing the results. According to our information the reformists are ahead (in Tehran)," said Esmail Gerami, a spokesman for Karroubi's reformist party, according to the ISNA agency.
The Sweet Scent of Service list also expressed concerns, calling for a recount of the vote. "Unfortunately we are seeing very serious irregularities and errors in the use of the computerised counting," it said.