Iran's conservatives, including several close allies of President Mahmoud Ahamadinejad, have surged ahead in parliamentary elections in the key area of Tehran, partial results showed on Sunday. Conservatives were occupying the top 14 places for the 30 seats available in Tehran and were set to enter parliament without any run-off votes, state media said, quoting interior ministry figures. Tehran results are closely watched since the political affiliations of candidates are clearer than in the provinces and its MPs are traditionally seen as the most powerful in the 290-seat chamber. Polling the most votes in Tehran was parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, a conservative who has nonetheless spoken out against the president on some economic issues. However second was mid-ranking cleric Morteza Agha Tehrani, a confidante of the deeply pious president and a follower of the ultra-hardline Qom-based cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi. Including Agha Tehrani, there were four members of Ahmadinejad's house faction The Sweet Scent of Service among the first 14 places, including prominent female lawmaker Fatemeh Alia. Three other Sweet Scent of Service members were also likely to be voted into parliament in run-off votes scheduled a month later after finishing in the top 30 but failing to poll the necessary 25 percent for outright first round victory. The parliamentary elections come ahead of a far more important presidential poll in 2009 which will determine whether Ahmadinejad carries on his controversial mandate for another four years. But moderate analyst Mohammad Soltanifar warned against drawing conclusions for 2009, when different factors would apply. “You have to differentiate between these elections,” he said. Conservatives had fractured into two coalitions for the vote - the Unified Principalist Front of traditional conservatives and the Broad Principalist Coalition of those less enthusiastic about Ahmadinejad. The Unified Front was clearly ahead in the Tehran vote, with several prominent members of the Broad Coalition failing to make the cut-off required for entry in the second round in one month. The Reformist Coalition failed to have any candidates in the top 14 directly elected to parliament but they will have 14 hopefuls who are eligible to stand in run-off votes in one month and should pick-up a couple of seats. The other reformist group, the National Confidence party of cleric Mehdi Karroubi, appeared to have fared worse, failing to have a candidate standing solely on its list qualify for the run-off. This included prominent members such as its spokesman Ismaeel Gerami Moghadam and Karroubi's wife Fatemeh. __
