Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Iran daily calls Ahmadinejad winner before polls close

Friday, June 24, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, June 24 (IranMania) - Iran's most influential hardline daily was going to press Friday night with a headline that right-winger Mahmood Ahmadinejad has won the presidency even though polls were not yet closed, the official news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said late Friday it had received a customary fax preview of the paper, Kayhan, and that it carried headlines saying "Ahmadinejad's Remarkable Victory" and "The nation finished the job".

Last week the paper, whose director is appointed by the Islamic republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, raised eyebrows by correctly predicting that Ahmadinejad was going into a second round even though the count from the first round had yet to even start.

Run-off rival and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and two beaten reformist candidates alleged that Ahmadinejad's shock success came thanks to an orchestrated plot by well-financed hardline regime elements such as the Guardians Council, the Basij militia and Revolutionary Guards.


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