TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffered an embarrassing blow in local council races, according to partial election results Monday.

Iranian woman casts her ballot as an official woman adjusts voter's IDs during city council and Expert Assembly elections, at a polling station, in Tehran on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. [AP]

The balloting represented a partial comeback for opponents of Ahmadinejad.

Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, a relative moderate, polled the most votes of any Tehran candidate to win re-election to a key assembly post.

The biggest victory was for "moderate conservatives," supporters of Iran's cleric-led power structure who are angry at Ahmadinejad, saying he has needlessly provoked the West with harsh rhetoric and has failed to fix the country's faltering economy.

The election, held Friday, does not directly affect Ahmadinejad's administration and is not expected to bring immediate policy changes. It selected local councils that handle community matters in cities and towns across Iran.

But it represented the first time the public has weighed in on Ahmadinejad's stormy presidency since he took office in June 2005. The results, if the trend holds, could pressure Ahmadinejad to change at least his tone and focus more on high unemployment and other economic problems. Full official results are expected Tuesday.

Ahmadinejad, who was elected to a four-year term in June 2005, has escalated Iran's nuclear dispute with the United States, pushing ahead with uranium enrichment despite UN demands to suspend the process. As a result, Europe has come to support Washington's calls for sanctions to stop a program they fear aims to develop nuclear weapons, a claim Iran denies.

The president also has angered Europe and the US by proclaiming Israel will one day be "wiped out" and hosting a conference casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust.

"Ahmadinejad's list has suffered a decisive defeat nationwide," said the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the largest reformist party. "It is a big no to the government's authoritarian and inefficient methods."

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