By Zahra Hosseinian
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Conservatives won a majority in Iran'sparliamentary vote, state television said on Sunday, but thenew assembly may still give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad atougher time ahead of next year's presidential election.
The hardline president's reformist critics had tried tocapitalise on public discontent over inflation in the world'sfourth-largest oil producer but many of their leadingcandidates were disqualified from the race.
State-owned Press TV said the conservatives, who callthemselves "principlists" for loyalty to the Islamic Republic'sideals, have taken at least 163 seats in the 290-memberassembly against 40 for the reformists so far.
The English-language satellite channel, citing the InteriorMinistry, said most votes had been counted. Some seats would goto run-off votes and some winners were classified asindependents.
Iranian officials have hailed the election as a victoryover the United States, the Islamic Republic's arch-foe, whichon the day of voting on Friday called the vote result "cooked".
But the European Union, whose main members back the UnitedStates in an escalating standoff with Tehran's over itsdisputed nuclear plans, said the election was "neither fair norfree."
The Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists, barredmany reformists when it screened potential candidates oncriteria such as commitment to Islam and the clerical system.
The 27-nation EU "expresses its deep regret anddisappointment that over a third of prospective candidates wereprevented from standing in this year's parliamentaryelections," its presidency said in a statement issued inBrussels.
"VICTORIOUS"
Iran's Interior Ministry, which supervised the vote, hassaid a final nationwide tally might not come out until Monday.
But even if the conservatives' victory is confirmed,analysts said divisions among politicians ranging from radicalbackers of Ahmadinejad to his more pragmatic critics couldwiden as they jockey for position before the 2009 presidentialrace.
Reformists, who seek political and social change, and someconservatives have accused the president of stoking inflation,now at 19 percent, by lavishly spending Iran's windfall oilrevenues on subsidies, loans and handouts.
"You could have a possibility of some of the conservativesmaking a coalition with the reformists and making it difficultfor the president to pass his bills," one Iranian analyst said.
Pro-reform politicians have also rebuked Ahmadinejad forspeeches that have kept Iran on a collision course with theUnited Nations over Tehran's nuclear programme.
However, Ahmadinejad has won public backing from Iran's topauthority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who hasendorsed his handling of the nuclear row.
Iran's leaders had called for a high turnout as a show ofdefiance for its "enemies" in the West: "The U.S. was the realloser and it was the Iranian people ... who emergedvictorious," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseinisaid.
Washington has led international efforts to penalise Iranfor failing to allay suspicions that it is seeking nuclearweapons. Tehran says its nuclear programme is purely civilian.
(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Edmund Blair andFirouz Sedarat in Tehran, Mark John in Brussels; Writing byFredrik Dahl; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
