Posts
Iranians re-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president with a resounding victory, taking a commanding lead in his bid for re-election with more than two-thirds of ballot boxes counted, Iran's interior ministry has said.
With 80 per cent of the ballots counted on Saturday, the election commission put Ahmadinejad ahead with 63.8 per cent of the vote against 32.7 per cent for Mir Hossein Mousavi, his main rival.
While his re-election was not a major upset, the scale of his first-round victory stunned his main challenger, Mirhossein Mousavi, whose campaign had drawn tens of thousands onto the streets of Tehran during three weeks of campaigning. Ahmadinejad won twice as many votes as Mousavi.
"Doctor Ahmadinejad, by getting a majority of the votes, has become the definite winner of the 10th presidential election," the official IRNA news agency reported.
After the declaration, the president's supporters took to the streets of Tehran, waving Iranian flags and honking car horns.
Mousavi had claimed victory just moments after polls closed on Friday.
"In line with the information we have received, I am the winner of this election by a substantial margin," he said. "We expect to celebrate with people soon."
But with the majority of votes counted according to Kamran Daneshjoo, chairman of the electoral commission at the interior ministry, the incumbent president had taken a seemingly unassailable lead.
The two other candidates up for election - Mohsen Rezai, a former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and Mehdi Karroubi, an ex-parliament speaker - were set to finish a distant third and fourth.
Mousavi alleged there had been irregularities in the voting, including a shortage of ballot papers.
He also accused the authorities of blocking text messaging, which his campaign has used to reach young voters.
About Ahmadinejad
Ahmadinejad, 53, championed Iran's devout poor, especially those in rural areas, who felt neglected by past governments and helped sweep him to power in 2005.
He promised to put oil wealth on the table of every family in a nation of over 70 million people, distributing loans, money and other help for local projects on his frequent provincial tours.
But critics say his free-spending policies fueled inflation and wasted windfall oil revenues without reducing unemployment.
Since he took power, prices of food, fuel and other basics have risen sharply, hitting more than 15 million Iranian families who live on less than $600 a month, according to official figures.
He blamed the inflation, which officially stands at 15 percent, on a global surge in food and fuel prices that peaked last year, and pursued unorthodox policies such as trying to curb prices while setting interest rates well below inflation.
In a series of bitter television debates with his three election rivals, he was repeatedly accused of lying about the extent of price rises.
While his re-election was not a major upset, the scale of his first-round victory stunned his main challenger, Mirhossein Mousavi, whose campaign had drawn tens of thousands onto the streets of Tehran during three weeks of campaigning. Ahmadinejad won twice as many votes as Mousavi.
"Doctor Ahmadinejad, by getting a majority of the votes, has become the definite winner of the 10th presidential election," the official IRNA news agency reported.
After the declaration, the president's supporters took to the streets of Tehran, waving Iranian flags and honking car horns.
Mousavi had claimed victory just moments after polls closed on Friday.
"In line with the information we have received, I am the winner of this election by a substantial margin," he said. "We expect to celebrate with people soon."
But with the majority of votes counted according to Kamran Daneshjoo, chairman of the electoral commission at the interior ministry, the incumbent president had taken a seemingly unassailable lead.
The two other candidates up for election - Mohsen Rezai, a former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and Mehdi Karroubi, an ex-parliament speaker - were set to finish a distant third and fourth.
Mousavi alleged there had been irregularities in the voting, including a shortage of ballot papers.
He also accused the authorities of blocking text messaging, which his campaign has used to reach young voters.
About Ahmadinejad
Ahmadinejad, 53, championed Iran's devout poor, especially those in rural areas, who felt neglected by past governments and helped sweep him to power in 2005.
He promised to put oil wealth on the table of every family in a nation of over 70 million people, distributing loans, money and other help for local projects on his frequent provincial tours.
But critics say his free-spending policies fueled inflation and wasted windfall oil revenues without reducing unemployment.
Since he took power, prices of food, fuel and other basics have risen sharply, hitting more than 15 million Iranian families who live on less than $600 a month, according to official figures.
He blamed the inflation, which officially stands at 15 percent, on a global surge in food and fuel prices that peaked last year, and pursued unorthodox policies such as trying to curb prices while setting interest rates well below inflation.
In a series of bitter television debates with his three election rivals, he was repeatedly accused of lying about the extent of price rises.
Comments