Election

This election is unpresidented. SHARI LIPSON Burbank

BEIRUT - The surprising election of Hassan Rowhani, a moderate cleric, as Iran's president has prompted a wave of speculation about a crucial question: Will Iran's new leadership be more willing to compromise on its nuclear program? No one knows for sure, but some Iranians express hope that Rowhani has both the credentials and the personal relationships necessary to make headway on the issue, which has wreaked havoc with Iran's international relations and led to sanctions that have all but crippled the nation's economy.

President Hamid Karzai named officials on Saturday to oversee a parliamentary election, sealing a compromise with the United Nations and ending a damaging standoff with the West. Karzai's quarrel with Western donors over rules for September's vote led to a diplomatic shouting match with Washington this month that brought relations between the wartime allies to a new low. In Saturday's announcement, Karzai put a former judge and legal scholar in charge of the election commission, and also named an Iraqi and a South African to a separate election fraud panel, satisfying international pressure to include foreigners.

Electoral authorities were counting ballots Saturday after tens of millions of Iranians turned out to vote for a successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the first presidential election since the disputed 2009 balloting led to street protests and a major crackdown on the opposition. Early returns indicated that Hassan Rowhani, a centrist cleric considered the sole moderate in the race, had jumped to a surprisingly large lead, garnering close to 50% of the vote, near the margin needed for victory.

Often, by the end of an election, the weaknesses of the existing campaign finance laws have become evident, and the need to update them has been made clear by the ways those weaknesses have been exploited. That is certainly the case with Los Angeles' most recent city elections. Some of the problems are not fixable locally. The explosive rise of independent expenditures, for instance, is constitutionally protected. The Supreme Court has held that the 1st Amendment protects the right of individuals, unions and corporations to spend unlimited sums on a political race, so long as the spending is not made directly to (or coordinated with)

SEOUL - Park Geun-hye, the daughter of the strongman who ruled South Korea for much of the 1960s and 1970s, was elected Wednesday as the country's first female president after a divisive, hotly contested election. Park, a member of the conservative New Frontier ruling party, has been a legislator since 1998. But her claim to fame before now came from her father, Park Chung-hee, who seized power in 1961 in a military coup and led the country until his assassination in 1979. Park, whose mother was killed in 1974, served as de facto first lady at state functions for the last five years of her father's presidency.

WASHINGTON - Recent polls have pointed toward a victory for Republican Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin's June 5 recall election. But here's the clearest evidence to date that national Democratic party officials believe their side is losing: Democratic officials are playing down the potential impact. Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) insisted in a television interview that a loss for the Democratic candidate in the recall, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, wouldn't have any implications for other races, such as the presidential election.

Thailand's main opposition party won a fractious election Sunday, paving the way for the nation's first female prime minister and the possible return from exile of her controversial brother, as disenfranchised voters laid down a new challenge to the nation's political establishment. Several hundred supporters mobbed party headquarters as word spread that the Puea Thai party, led by political novice Yingluck Shinawatra, 44, had secured 264 of parliament's 500 seats in preliminary results.

The fields of candidates have been set to replace two Southern California men who recently left the Legislature. Three Democrats and one Republican will be on the April 13 special election ballot to replace Democrat Paul Krekorian in the 43rd Assembly District, which includes Burbank, most of Glendale and part of Los Angeles. Krekorian previously won election to the Los Angeles City Council. Democrats hoping to succeed him in the Assembly are educator/attorney Mike Gatto, small-business owner Chahe Keuroghelian and Glendale school board member Nayiri Nahabedian.

Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti is preaching a gospel of civic rebirth in appearances across Los Angeles while gently lowering expectations about how much City Hall, and he himself, can do to bring about change. In a city of 4 million, "I can't be everywhere, I won't be everywhere and do a good job," Garcetti told a crowd of about 250 at Cal State Northridge on Wednesday, one in a series of "Back to Basics" forums in the weeks before he replaces outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on July 1. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article said that Pat Pope voted for Wendy Greuel.

TEHRAN - Millions of Iranians headed to the polls early Friday to choose a new president in balloting that has taken on a competitive edge as a single moderate contender faces off against a splintered array of hard-line hopefuls. Friday's election is the first since the disputed 2009 balloting that gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term amid allegations of vote-rigging, triggering massive street protests and a police crackdown. Authorities have vowed that the tumultuous scene of four years ago will not be repeated, and security is expected to be tight.

Often, by the end of an election, the weaknesses of the existing campaign finance laws have become evident, and the need to update them has been made clear by the ways those weaknesses have been exploited. That is certainly the case with Los Angeles' most recent city elections. Some of the problems are not fixable locally. The explosive rise of independent expenditures, for instance, is constitutionally protected. The Supreme Court has held that the 1st Amendment protects the right of individuals, unions and corporations to spend unlimited sums on a political race, so long as the spending is not made directly to (or coordinated with)

Almost a year after Orange County's largest city was rocked by street protests, civic leaders again have decided to hold off asking voters whether the structure of future council elections should be altered in an effort to diversify representation. Anaheim has seen a dramatic ethnic shift in recent years, and now about 52% of the city's 336,000 residents are Latino, though only a few Latinos have ever won council seats. The city is the largest municipality in California without council districts.

Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell announced Tuesday evening that he will not be challenging Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca in next year's election. McDonnell, a well-respected former Los Angeles police official, had been considering running for several months. If he had, he would have been the most formidable opponent to challenge Baca since Baca became sheriff about 15 years ago. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, McDonnell said he made his decision over the weekend, after considering how much time it would take to compete for campaign donations against an incumbent.

SACRAMENTO - Bill Lockyer should have been governor. He would have been good for California - and great for people in my line of work. The state treasurer - who announced Monday that he'll retire next year from elective office after four decades in Sacramento - has always been a politician who could deal and get things done. He's also candid and, especially earlier in his career, prone to shoot off his mouth. "I resent your mindless blather," Lockyer once told a female state senator, a fellow Democrat, while chairing a committee.

Compton voters have ushered in a new guard by electing political newcomer Aja Brown as mayor over controversial former city leader Omar Bradley, and appearing to send the first Latino representative to the City Council. Initial results showed Brown, a 31-year-old USC-educated urban planner, beating Bradley, a former two-term mayor, by 4,143 votes to his 2,360. Bradley and Brown went to Tuesday's runoff after defeating current Mayor Eric Perrodin and a crowded field of challengers, including former child actor Rodney Allen Rippy, in April's primary.

SAN DIEGO - Under a pro-business Republican mayor, it was a no-brainer: allocating millions of dollars each year to buy national advertising for the tourism industry - a major economic driver in this vacation mecca. Then Bob Filner got elected, and he had questions: Why couldn't Sheraton and Hilton buy their own advertising? And why should the cash-strapped city lavish funds on an industry that pays low wages to bottom-rung employees like maids and bellhops? The new Democratic mayor also thought the city attorney should provide him with legal guidance on the matter in private, not in front of reporters.