By Andrew L. Jaffee

If there’s anything left of Iran’s “electoral” process, voters seem to be giving President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the message to cool it on his insane hate- and war-mongering — at least as interpreted by the AP. But I’ll go with this assessment, as this is the first time I’ve noticed the AP put the term “moderate conservatives” in quotes where referring to “reformers” inside the Iranian mullahcracy:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffered an embarrassing blow in local council races, according to partial election results Monday, in voting viewed as a sign of public discontent with his hard-line stance.

The balloting represented a partial comeback for opponents of Ahmadinejad, whose Islamic government’s policies have fueled fights with the West and brought Iran closer to U.N. sanctions.

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. …

In some cities such as Shiraz and Bandar Abbas, not one pro-Ahmadinejad candidate won a council seat, according to partial results announced by the Interior Ministry.

In Tehran, candidates supporting Mayor Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, a moderate conservative, were on track to win seven of 15 council seats. Reformists were set to win four, while Ahmadinejad’s allies had three, partial results showed. The last seat was likely to go to an independent.

Similar anti-Ahmadinejad sentiment was visible in a parallel election for members of the Assembly of Experts, a body of 86 senior clerics that monitors Iran’s supreme leader and chooses his successor. Several pro-reform clerics were barred from running, but conservative opponents of the president appeared to outperform his supporters.

Is it possible that such “elections” are an avenue for popular discontent? Yes, but these “elections” must be put into — there’s that phrase — a proper context. The extreme Islamists that hold real power in government, the Council of Guardians, banned hundreds of “reform”-minded candidates from running in 2004 elections. It can be safely said that the candidates that were then vetted were taken from a pool of already vetted ones. So maybe we’re seeing some discontent now, but of a very restricted form. The kettle of real discontent will boil over in Iran — one day.