Moderate leads in clerical election

A moderate former Iranian leader was far ahead in the race for a seat on a powerful clerical body, according to partial election results reported by state-run television.

Hashemi Rafsanjani had more than 1.5 million votes for a seat in the Assembly of Experts, a body of 86 senior clerics that monitors Iran's supreme leader and chooses his successor, state TV said.

A victory for Rafsanjani would be seen as a setback for hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who defeated the former president in last year's elections.