Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's opponents made early gains in two elections that provide the first public test of his authority since he won the presidency in June 2005.

Backers of Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf, an opponent of Ahmadinejad at the presidential election, led the race for the City Council, initial results from the Interior Ministry showed. Of the five candidates polling most votes in the contest for the municipality's 15 seats, four were Qalibaf supporters and one was from a coalition of modernizing ``reformists.''

Former president Ali Akbar Hasehmi Rafsanjani, beaten by Ahmadinejad in last year's presidential race, was re-elected to Iran's influential Assembly of Experts with 1.56 million votes in a parallel Dec. 15 poll, well ahead of the 880,000 votes garnered by Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesba Yazdi, who also won re-election.

If Ahmadinejad's supporters fail to win Tehran it will be a ``big blow, and a strong endorsement for the centralists,'' Ali Ansari, reader in Middle Eastern politics at St. Andrews University, Scotland, said in a phone interview. He was referring to Iranian politicians seeking a more liberal economy and a less confrontational stance toward the U.S. and its allies.

The president would be likely to ``put a spin on it,'' though it won't serve him to go around the world ``saying how good and popular he is,'' said Ansari, author of ``Confronting Iran: The Failure of American Foreign Policy and the Roots of Mistrust.''

Anti-U.S. Stance

About 10 percent of 1.8 million votes cast in Tehran in the municipal elections had been counted as of early today, according to the Interior Ministry. Overall turnout for both elections across the country was about 60 percent, with some 46 million eligible voters.

Ahmadinejad, pronounced ah-ma-deen-ah-ZHAD, was elected president after a campaign in which he vowed to use his country's oil wealth to improve the lives of ordinary people. His administration has been marked by a hardening of the Islamic Republic's anti-U.S. stance and he has prompted international condemnation with speeches in which he has reiterated Iran's official opposition to Israel's existence, calling for the Jewish state to be ``wiped off the map.''

Militias, Nuclear Program

The U.S. accuses Iran of trying to wield influence throughout the region, by supporting Shiite Muslim militias in neighboring Iraq, financing and arming Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, and seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran, while maintaining its position as the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has defied United Nations demands to suspend the nuclear program, saying it's needed to generate electricity.

The Assembly of Experts nominates the country's highest authority, the supreme leader, a post held now by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Chosen for life, the supreme leader can be replaced should the 86 top Islamic theologians who form the Assembly consider he has failed to fulfill his duties. Turnout in Tehran for the Assembly election was about 47 percent, the Interior Ministry said.

In the Tehran municipal election the president's sister, Parvin Ahmadinejad, who is running on a list titled ``the Pleasant Scent of Service,'' ranks 11th from 15th candidates, state television said. She could fail to win a seat.

More than 233,000 candidates ran for more than 113,000 council seats in cities, towns and villages across Iran, the Associated Press said. Local councils elect city mayors and approve community budgets and planning projects.

Counts are ongoing for the country's councils with final results scheduled to be released tomorrow.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Tehran at lnasseri@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 18, 2006 12:25 EST