Wampum

Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi has reported high participation, but no figures. Turnout was just under 50% in 2003, and in Tehran it was barely in the double digits.

The conservative vote in Tehran is divided between former mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and current mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani cast their votes side-by-side at the polling station in the Jamaran mosque in north Tehran. That's proof this is the real deal, and the "international event" of the 11th and 12th a distraction.

Updates as the votes are reported. I expect Tehran City to be late. It is unclear whether the counts will be by computer or hand counted. The Elections Headquarters (national) and the Supreme Supervision Council over Tehran Constituency City and Rural Islamic Councils Elections contradict each other for Tehran City and the rural council elections.

Updates:
16:30 GMT Polling extended until 8 p.m. due to turnout.
17:30 GMT Polling extended until 9 p.m. due to turnout.

Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi describes the turnout as "very high", "unprecedented" and in excess of 60% of the eleigible vote in most provinces.

The Interior Ministry's announced that the results will be released Sunday evening, except for Tehran. There are three elections being held simultaniously, one for the Assembly of Experts (4th), one for the local councils (3rd), and one I hadn't noticed, the second by-elections for the 7th Majlis in three constituencies -- Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr (unified), Bam and Ahvaz.

The Assembly of Experts elections are conducted at the provincal level, and the tabulations are being done at eac provincial capital. The results of the AoE elections for Tehran (province) may be released Sunday.

The municipal elections are tabulated in each municipality and reported district offices, then provincial governors, then to the Supervisory Board which will make the official announcements.

The election results from Bam and Tehran for the Majlis by-election will be announced on Saturday. I don't yet have information on the by-elections for Ahvaz.

Turnout is high. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won on wicked low turnout in '03 (Tehran City) and '05 (Presidential).

In Hamedan province Ayatollah Ali Razini was elected to the AoE with about a third of the total vote. Personally, I'd preferd the prosecutor of former Tehran mayor Qolam Hossein Karbaschi to be prosecuted, not elected. Another person I'd prefer to see voters reject is Ayatollah Rahim Mohammadi Ilami, who was elected to the AoE with about half the votes from Ilam province. Ilami is a stoning-for-adultry cleric. Click on the link, sign the petition, it goes to Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, head of the Judiciary (Sharia judge) until 2009, and amusingly, also of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and Golam-Ali Haddad-Adel, who's the current speaker of the 7th Majlis. The Women's Field (meydaan.com) website is one that is blocked by the Islamic Republic.

Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani was also elected to the AoE from Qazvin province. When the London bombings took place (July 7th, 2005) he sensibly said to Tony Blair that it wasn't al-Qaeda, rather it, to paraphrase using the Observer's reporting of the Home Office report, the work of four men with a few hundred pounds between them. Also Ayatollah Mohammad Mo'men was elected to the AoE from Qum, ahead of an associate of Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, which is a good thing. Yazdi's one of the Ahmadinejad gang.

Note to self: Who was on the Jame-e Modaressin Hoze Elmie Qom (Qom Theological Society Teachers) slate, and who was on the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slate for the AoE? Ans: Rafsanjani and Mesbah-Yazdi, respectively, for Tehran, where else was there a substantive difference, and who won?

More updates: Mehr reports the Ahmadinejad list lost all but four of the 15 seats on the Tehran city council, with Qalibaf's list picking up 8 seats and the Reform list getting 3 or 4 seats, and that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is polling ahead of Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi in for the AoE seat from Tehran. Good news if true.

More updates: Kar reports that Mostafa Tajzadeh (Islamic Iran Participation Front) claims the Ahmadinejad camp has lost the elections. Good news if true.

More updates: Four more Provincial AoE outcomes:
Mazandaran province: Hojatoleslam Nourollah Tabarsi
Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari province: Alireza Eslamian
South Khorasan province: Ibrahim Raees Sadati
Ardebil province: Hojatoleslam Hassan Ameli and Ayatollah Mir-Ibrahim Seyyed Hatami

RFE has Ameli carefully supporting the IRML during the 33 Day War, which is a good sign.

What does it all mean? My friend Chris frequently asks me to write a wee bit more comprehensibly. My "style" when doing the Return of the ... One True King and it's extensions ROTOTK (NS) and Is Pakistan? originates in the sleepless hours of midnight-to-dawn during the height of Jonah's Sleep Disturbance Events (six nights in seven some weeks, and all weeks all years for years, less now). If you've read this, then as of now (mid-day, EST), you know more fact than anyone one else. For meaning you've yours, or mine. Fortunately, my ROTOTK work is never linked to, so I've no distractions, other than the occasional MEK/MKO/PMOI/NCR/ rep.

More updates:

The Mehr / Kar reports are confirmed. Rafsanjani over Yazdi for AoE (Tehran) by a wide margin with half the vote counted.