The conservatives have gained a convincing victory in Iran's parliamentary elections, state media reported Sunday. ( dpa )
According to the Fars news agency, conservatives gained more than 70 per cent of the votes, reformists around 20 per cent and the rest went to independent candidates.
The conservatives were also expected to win in the Iranian capital - whose 30 seats are some of the most politically significant in Iran's parliament - according to results Sunday after parliamentary elections across the country two days earlier.
According to initial results carried by state news agency ISNA, Parliament Speaker Gholam-Ali Hadad-Adel, a close aide of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, leads the Tehran list, followed by other conservatives, most of them supporters of the president.
The only reformist candidate who could slip into the top 30 is Majid Ansari. Other reformists are considerably behind.
The conservatives's lead had been expected. They formed the majority of the candidates, after more than half of the reformist candidates were disqualified by the senate-like Guardian Council for alleged lack of loyalty to the Islamic system.
Yet despite the landslide win, the conservatives are reportedly split over their support for the president, especially Ahmadinejad's economic policies. It remained unclear what percentage of the 70 per cent would also fully stand behind the president.
The most prominent Ahmadinejad opponent already elected to parliament is Ali Larijani, who gained a big win in the religious city of Qom, 130 kilometres south of Tehran.
He represents the so-called "revisionists," a group that used to back the president but gradually grew apart from him and formed their own faction.
Larijani resigned last October as chief nuclear negotiator after grave differences with Ahmadinejad over the country's nuclear policies. He has since been regarded as a critic of the president, especially over economic policies which have caused high inflation.
While calling on the conservative winners not to get arrogant, Larijani predicted that the new legislative period would be different, "more effective and more focused on national interests."