Wampum

Hassan Ghafouri-Fard was a major independent candidate in the '01 cycle presidential race. He picked up 452,801 or the 2,111,037 votes cast for the Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr (taken as one) constituency, taking one of the two seats. Soheila Jelodarzadeh was one of 14 women are elected to the Fifth Majls (1996-2000):, and to the Sixth Majles (2000-2004). She ran on the (unified) Reform slate and picked up 307,618 votes to win the second open seat.

Note: Four women were elected to the First Majles (1980-1984), all from Tehran, four women were elected to the Second Majles (1984-1988), again, all from Tehran. Three women were elected to the Third Majles (1988-1992), all from Tehran, and nine women were elected to the Fourth Majles (1992-1996), five from Tehran. Source: Appendix: Chronology of Events Regarding Women in Iran since the Revolution of 1979, by Elham Gheytanchi.

Agence France-Press reports that reformists now claime they had made major gains and were controlling over 250 town or city councils.

Rafsanjani, wearing the hat of Chairman of the Expediency Council, only one sunset after being confirmed as the highest vote getter for the Assembly of Experts in Tehran, said that the the nation expects the government not to evade the goals of the strategy plan. The strategic plan he's referring to is the '20-Year Strategy for Economic, Cultural and Social Development Plan (2005-2025), which is scheduled for a conference in the very near future. I read that as a veiled reference to Ahmadinejad, who ran on delivering those goals in the '05 cycle, and hasn't.

Unrelated, another Bush Victory -- Iran is switching from the US dollar to the EU euro. The Petro-Dollar is dead, long live the Euro-Dollar!

With 695,985 votes counted from 2,013 ballot boxes, the Tehran municipals standings are as follows:
1- Mehdi Chamran: 169,978
2- Morteza Talaie: 153,525
3- Hadi Sa'ie: 120,435
4- Rasoul Khadem: 120,387
5- Abbas Sheibani: 108,275
6- Alireza Dabir: 92,820
7- Hamzeh Shakib-ba: 88,134
8- Masoumeh Ebtekar: 72,611
9- Ahmad Masjed-Jame'i: 68,208
10- Parvin Ahmadinejad: 65,701 ("Sweet smell of service" slate)
11- Mohammad-Ali Najafi: 64,248
12- Masoumeh Abad: 54,556
13- Hassan Bayadi: 53,662
14- Khosro Daneshjou: 52,536 ("Sweet smell of service" slate)
15- Abdolmoqim Nasehi: 52,527
(16-50 continued in the extended area.