Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Iran's poll favourite reels at hardliner's late surge

COLIN FREEMAN
IN TEHRAN

Sat 25 Jun 2005
INITIAL indications last night suggested Iran's presidential election was closely split between a powerful cleric whom liberals hope will protect Iran's fragile reforms and an ultra-conservative who tapped into deep resentment over the nation's economic woes.

The first results gave the lead to Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has the backing of reformers. But the number of votes counted was too small to accurately forecast a trend.

To add to the confusion, one election official said the hardline anti-westerner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a commanding lead over the veteran politician Rafsanjani.

Earlier, in what many fear was a sign of the agenda Mr Ahmadinejad may pursue if elected, British, American and Israeli flags were trampled as the Tehran mayor voted at a mosque. The flags of Iran's three long-standing enemies had been painted outside. Visitors were invited to rub the soles of their feet over them as they wandered in, a traditional sign of disrespect in Muslim culture.

Mr Ahmadinejad, whose pious Islamism and coolness towards the West has struck a chord with Iranians disillusioned with reform, is the surprise contender against Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the reform-minded conservative originally deemed the favourite.

As polls closed last night the outcome was deemed too close to call - reflecting the yawning divide the contest has revealed over the future of Iran's 27-year-old Islamic theocracy.

After announcing the voting had ended, Iran's Interior Ministry reopened polls for another 30 minutes to accommodate those waiting to vote in the tight presidential election. Results are expected early today.

Two weeks ago the presidential hopes of Mr Ahmadinejad, the little-known mayor of Tehran, had scarcely registered at Mr Rafsanjani's formidably well-organised campaign HQ. A powerful cleric who nonetheless has a huge business empire, Mr Rafsanjani was seen as the ideal broker between the forces of orthodoxy and reform.

But in the days that followed, many of Mr Rafsanjani's blessings backfired. His vast personal wealth and lavish campaign spending, for example, fitted in perfectly with Mr Ahmadinejad's claims that western-style reforms have benefited only the rich and not the poor.

With much of the country still in dire poverty, his talk of rekindling the Islamic revolution of 1979 - a time synonymous in Iran with self-sacrifice and community spirit - has gone down well in the slums of Tehran and dirt-poor rural areas.

Yesterday, the comments of the two rivals as they left polling stations showed how the political ground had shifted. Mr Rafsanjani was notably downbeat, clearly concerned at the prospect of an upset. "It is a very close race but I think that I am slightly ahead," he said, warning that the reforms of recent years were at risk of reversing into "extremism".

Mr Ahmadinejad showed the kind of fervour of Iran's late revolutionary mentor, Ayatollah Khomeini. "Inshallah (God willing), it is the beginning of a new era in the political life of the Iranian nation," he said.

Mr Rafsanjani's main hope is mopping up the supporters outside his own immediate political camp, which is still far too conservative for a large section of the reform movement.

Their own candidate, the left-wing former education minister Mostapha Moin, was left trailing in the last week's first round presidential vote after many of his supporters boycotted the polls in protest at the vetting of certain candidates by mullahs.


http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=700962005