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.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The hardline Tehran mayor steamrolled over one of Iran's best-known statesman to win the presidency Saturday in a landslide election victory that cements conservative control over the nation's political leadership.
The outcome capped a stunning upset by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who many reformers fear will take Iran back to the restrictions imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Interior Ministry gave Ahmadinejad 62.2 percent of the vote over his more moderate rival, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who had nearly 35.3 percent. The ministry posted a notice in its headquarters declaring Ahmadinejad the winner of Friday's runoff. The rest of the ballots were deemed invalid.
The figures were based on more than 90 percent of the estimated 23 million votes cast, or nearly 49 percent of Iran's 47 million eligible voters. In last week's first round of the presidential election, the turnout was close to 63 percent.
The victory gives conservatives control of Iran's two highest elected offices _ the presidency and parliament _ and gives a freer hand to the non-elected theocracy, which holds the final word on all important policies.
Clerics led by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have true power in Iran, able to overrule elected officials. But reformers, who lost parliament in elections last year, had been hoping to retain some hand in government to preserve the greater social freedoms they've been able to win, such as looser dress codes, more mixing between the sexes and openings to the West.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore indicated the result would not change the U.S. view of Iran, and what it considered to be a fundamentally flawed election that refused to accept scores of candidates, particularly women.
"With the conclusion of the elections in Iran, we have seen nothing that sways us from our view that Iran is out of step with the rest of the region in the currents of freedom and liberty that have been so apparent in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon," Moore said.
Ahmadinejad supporters will go to mosques to hold prayers and "thank God for this great victory," said his campaign manager Ali Akbar Javanfekr. But he said no street celebrations are planned.
The streets of Tehran were quiet before dawn. State television announced the results in its dawn bulletin, but there were no immediate outdoor celebrations.
Ahmadinejad, the 49-year-old mayor of the capital, campaigned as a champion of the poor, a message that resonated with voters in a country where some estimates put unemployment as high as 30 percent. He struck the image of a simple working man against Rafsanjani, a wealthy member of the country's ruling elite.
"The real nuclear bomb that Iran has is its unemployed young people," said Ali Pourassad, after casting his vote for Ahmadinejad at a polling station set up in the courtyard of a mosque in the middle-class south of Tehran. "If nothing is done to create jobs for our young people, we will have an explosion on the streets."
But Ahmadinejad also vowed to return Iran to the principles of the Islamic Revolution more than a quarter-century ago. Such comments and reports about his inner circle of supporters _ members of the Revolutionary Guard, the vigilantes who enforce public dress codes and some of the most hard-line clerics in Iran's theocracy _ frightened Iran's reformers.
Ahmadinejad (pronounced "Aah-MA-dee-ni-JAHD") had not been expected even to make the runoff. But he squeaked ahead of his rivals into the No. 2 spot in last week's first-round vote. There were accusations that Revolutionary Guards and vigilantes intimidated voters to sway the vote in his favor.
Going into the first round, the 70-year-old Rafsanjani had been considered by far the favorite. But he was battered, placing first with only 21 percent in that round.
During Friday's voting, the reformist-led Interior Ministry reported "interference" at some Tehran polling stations. A ministry worker who was at a polling station reminding officials to watch for violations was arrested after he got in an argument with representatives of one of the two candidates, ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani said.
An Interior Ministry observers' group reported 300 complaints of violations in Tehran, said group leader Ibrahim Razini.
In the eyes of most, Rafsanjani _ who was president from 1989-97 _ represented the status quo. Backers felt confident he would continue the many social changes introduced by outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, including youth-supported freedoms such as dating, music, and colorful headscarves for women.
Ahmadinejad's surprising strength alarmed moderates and business groups at home and was watched with concern by international officials. Ahmadinejad would likely be a tough negotiating partner in Iran's talks with Europe over its nuclear program, which the United States contends aims to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran says the program aims only for producing energy.
He has criticized Iran's current negotiators as making too many concessions to Europe _ particularly in freezing the uranium enrichment program _ and he was expected to put Iran's nuclear program into the hands of some avowed anti-Western clerics.
The pragmatic Rafsanjani has appeared more willing to negotiate on the nuclear program. But a Foreign Ministry spokesman Friday underlined that the suspension is temporary and that enrichment will eventually be restarted no matter who wins the election.
But for many Iranians, the biggest issue was an economy that has languished despite Iran's oil and gas riches. Iran's official unemployment rate is 16 percent, but unofficially it is closer to 30 percent _ and the country has to create 800,000 jobs a year just to stand still. In the fall, another million young people are expected to enter the work force.
Ahmadinejad, the son of a blacksmith, presented himself as the humble alternative to Rafsanjani, whose family runs a large business empire. He has promised Iran's underclass higher wages, more development funds for rural areas, expanded health insurance and more social benefits for women.
"Every vote you cast is a bullet in the hearts" of the United States, said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council and considered a leading supporter of Ahmadinejad.
"What they (Western countries) have is not democracy, but rule of trickery. It's parties and capitalists who get the vote of the people in their own favor to fill their pockets," he told worshippers at Friday prayers.
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