Teheran (AsiaNews) – With over 90% of votes counted Iran seems destined to confirm a second mandate for Ahmadinejad. The outgoing president has gained 64% of votes. His main rival, former premier, Mir Hossein Mousavi has stopped at 32%.
The other candidates, ex Parliament Speaker, Mehdi Karrubi, and former Commander of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai, lag far behind the two main campaign leaders at 0.9%, and 2.5%.
Data issued by the Ministry for Internal Affairs and announced by the state television are yet to be confirmed, but point to a first round victory for Ahmadinejad, thus avoiding a run-off. The ministry confirms that of an electorate of 46.2 million 35 million cast their ballot.
But already the vote results have become an issue for contention between the two main rivals. Mohammad Sahadatfar, spokesman for Ahmadinejad, confirmed that the president expected this result and that already yesterday polling some stations had announced his victory shortly after their closure. The same reaction was voiced by Abolfazl Fateh, head of the Mousavi campaign. Ahead of the count he had attributed to the former Prime Minister 25 million votes, equal to 62.5% of the preferences. “Based on reports from provinces, Mousavi will certainly be victorious with a large lead in this very first round” – Fateh had declared. He then went on to call for investigations into vote rigging. The former premier also complained that many of his supporters were unable to cast their ballot because of a lack of voting papers in many polling stations.
