March 16, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1429

TEHRAN, March 15: Conservatives are leading with 120 seats against 46 for their reformist opponents in an election for Iran’s 290-seat parliament, Iran’s state Press TV said on Saturday.

Iranians voted on Friday in an election that was expected to keep conservatives in control of the assembly.

The English-language satellite channel said four seats had gone to independents. Thirty seats will be decided in run-off elections after candidates failed to secure enough votes for an outright win.

Press TV said results also showed a “landslide victory of over 80 per cent” for conservatives in the battle for Tehran’s 30-seat constituency.

Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said earlier in the day that final results for Tehran might not be announced for two days.

The Fars News Agency gave slightly different figures. It said of the 170 seats decided, 125 had gone to conservatives, 35 to reformists and 10 to independents.

Determining political allegiances is not easy in Iran where there is no tradition of disciplined party membership and loyalties can often shift.

Meanwhile, former chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani celebrated winning a seat in the parliament by saying he differed with the president over style not substance and that he would work with the government.

Larijani quit his post last year citing differences with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about how to handle Iran’s dispute with the West over its nuclear programme. The president has taken a notably combative line.

Speaking in Qom, the city where he won a seat in Friday’s election, Larijani offered to cooperate with the government and said he had no ideological dispute with Ahmadinejad.“We have no confrontation of any kind with Mr Ahmadinejad and we pursue a path of cooperation between parliament and the government,” Larijani told a news conference.

But analysts say the former negotiator is eyeing next year’s presidential race after losing to Ahmadinejad in 2005 and could use his role as lawmaker as a springboard for any bid.

Asked if he would vie for the top post of speaker in the new parliament, Larijani said he would leave that to the assembly.

Conservatives, who count Larijani in their ranks, are expected to retain control of the 290-seat assembly, based on partial results. But conservatives are a broad camp, spanning radical revolutionary backers of Ahmadinejad and rivals to the president like Larijani. —Agencies