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| Sunday, 19 June 2005 |
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Rafsanjani in front as Iran vote heads for run-off TEHRAN, Saturday (AFP) Moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was narrowly ahead Saturday after the tightest presidential election in Iran's history, with a second round inevitable after voters turned out in surprisingly high numbers. Initial results based on around 63 percent of the vote showed the pragmatic former president had edged into a slight lead over hardline Tehran mayor Mahmood Ahmadinejad and reformist-centrist cleric Mehdi Karoubi. However the standings were set to change as big cities, including Tehran, were yet to report their count. The only thing certain was the race was set to go into an unprecedented second round run-off between the top two on June 24. "Big cities have not yet been counted, and it is very likely that the standings will change," said Gholamhossein Elham, spokesman for the Guardians Council political watchdog, confirming that none of the seven candidates would poll enough to win outright. Elham said Rafsanjani was ahead with 20.84 percent, Ahmadinejad second with 19.71 percent and Karoubi third with 17.57 percent. Karoubi, who has come from nowhere in the polls to vault into the top three, appears to have won support in rural areas - which traditionally back clerics - after promising to give all Iranians free monthly handouts of 500,000 rials (55 dollars). The charge by the ultra-conservative Ahmadinejad, who has made much of his closeness to supreme leader Ali Khamenei, was also a surprise. In fourth place was hardline former police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf with 14.28 percent. Trailing at this stage was Mostafa Moin, the leftist and the main pro-reform candidate, on 13.64 percent, but he is expected to win more votes in big cities. The final two were hardline former state television boss Ali Larijani and independent-reformer Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh on around five percent apiece. "It is an unpredictable election, and the standings can still change,"
said deputy interior minister in charge of legal affairs, Sayed Mahmoud Mir
Lohi. |
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