The offical news agency reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won, and the state elections chief said that the President had 69 per cent of the vote with 35 per cent of the ballots counted. However, the main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, insisted that he was the “definite winner” by a substantial margin, and an aide suggested that he had taken 65 per cent.
The official result will be announced today, but the huge turnout ─ close to the historic record of 80 per cent ─ appeared to favour Mr Mousavi’s claim. Urban, middle-class Iranians, who seldom bother to vote, did so yesterday because they thought Mr Ahmadinejad’s first four years in office a disaster.
It was widely alleged, but never proved, that vote-rigging secured Mr Ahmadinejad’s unlikely victory in 2005. He entered that election an unknown, but was backed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader.
Update: This reader comment is very interesting:
One more thing: do not discount the power of vote rigging. I expect the vote to be close, but anything that gives Ahmadinejad more than 60% of the vote has definitely been rigged. Of course, there are also more subtle ways of modifying the outcome: bussing his supporters to the booths with state funds, running out of ballot paper in the voting booths of Tehran, voter intimidation by armed thugs, and so on.
Ahmadinejad is supposed to have 62% of the vote at final count.
Ahmadinejad appears to be taking lessons from Hugo Chavez to become a “President for life”. It will be interesting to see Khamenei’s reaction to the polls.
This “election” does not appear to passing the smell test. It looks like the Iranian people aren’t buying it either.
I wonder who were kidding here. There’s only one vote that really counts, and that’s Khamenei’s.
there is a danger of violence in Tehran and other cities.
Won’t matter. Mobs armed with rocks aren’t much of a match for tanks and machine guns. Isn’t it great when the government has all the weapons?