TEHRAN: Iran’s municipal elections, held on Saturday, ended with an unexpected and bitter defeat for the reformists close to President Mohammad Khatami and the victory of a rather unknown moderate conservative group.

The Abadgaran (Rebuilders), said to consist of technocrats close to former President

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, emerged as winners and will now take care of the country’s city council affairs for the next four years.

From a political viewpoint however, the low turnout, just 25 per cent in the capital Tehran according to the official news agency IRNA — is a signal for the whole administration, regardless of whether in favour or against the reform course of the president.

The low turnout means the electorate considers their vote meaningless as their demands are not realized by the administration, said reformist MP Rajab-Ali Mazruie.

Although some local conservative press circles tried to celebrate the outcome as a victory for the anti-reform wing, Abadgaran rejected in a statement links to the conservative opposition.

The municipal elections are however no objective sign of political changes in the country and no sign that one political faction now has the upper hand over the other one.

Observers however believe that Khatami and his men are gradually losing their most valuable asset, the people’s support.

And the traditional conservative opposition, which after several humiliating election failures withdrew itself from the elections and did not even present any candidate list, is also aware that the defeat of reformists was just based on low turnout and not change in the political climate.

Frustration grew after the people realized that even with a popular mandate of over 70 per cent, Khatami is not able to implement the promised reforms and cannot effectively confront the hardliners.

Despite numerous promises, liberal press outlets are still closed down, secular dissidents remain in detention and judiciary rulings now also include the death verdict, as imposed on a neo-Islamic scholar but later revised after student protests.

Also on the economic front, the prospects for youth, which form half of Iran’s 67 million population and a main force behind Khatami, are rather dim with unemployment rising.

The last chance the reformists have to regain popular trust is approving a bill in parliament which would enable a referendum on granting more rights

to democratically-elected bodies and decreasing the influence of appointed officials such as the judiciary and the senate-like Guardian Council.—dpa