Since his inauguration in August 2005, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced mounting criticism over his administration's political, economic, and social agenda. Observers noted a significant degree of rising discontent among various segments of the population as evidenced, for example, by the public unrest witnessed in June 2007 in response to the introduction of gasoline rationing.1 The situation in the months leading to the Eighth Majles Election was distinctive because this dissatisfaction also began resonating among segments of the political elite, prompting the emergence of not only reformist, but also conservative opposition to Ahmadinejad.