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Summary Parvin Ahmadinejad was defeated by her conservative rival.
The younger sister of Irans President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed to win a parliamentary seat in the hometown of the president, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported Saturday.The report said the final results from a small town southeast of the capital shows that Parvin Ahmadinejad, a close ally of the president, was defeated by her conservative rival.Parvin Ahmadinejad was running for a seat in Garmsar, about 35 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of Tehran. She is a current member of Tehrans municipal council.Her failure in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads hometown is seen as a big blow to him in the first balloting since his disputed re-election in 2009.Early returns also showed conservative rivals of Ahmadinejad were elected in many other constituencies. Out of 50 winners, at least 36 conservative opponents of Ahmadinejad had won seats in parliament.More than 3,440 parliamentary hopefuls all vetted by Irans ruling Islamic system and none with links to the Green Movement that led protests after Ahmadinejads re-election were running for seats.The early results suggest Ahmadinejad will face a more belligerent parliament in the nearly two years remaining in his second four-year term.Nationwide, final results are expected to be released during the weekend and early next week. Results in small towns, with few representatives in parliament, appear sooner than cities like the capital, Tehran, which has some 5 million eligible voters and 30 legislators.The new parliament will begin its work late in June. It is expected to boost the voices of hard-line opponents of Ahmadinejad in next years presidential elections.The results for the 290-seat parliament will have no direct influence over Irans nuclear program or other critical affairs, such as military or oil policies.However, high turnout could heighten Tehrans defiance of the international communitys effort to halt Irans nuclear program, which the West suspects is trying to build a weapon, a charge Iran denies.Mehr said some 70 percent of more than 48 million eligible voters participated in the Friday elections.In 2008 and 2004, the turnout for parliamentary elections was 57 percent and 51 percent, respectively.
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