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Reform candidate leads in iran polls { June 24 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5097070,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5097070,00.html
Reform-Minded Candidate Leads in Iran
Friday June 24, 2005 11:16 PM
AP Photo XHS103
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranians clogged polling stations in a tight presidential election Friday, teetering between a powerful cleric who liberals hope will protect Iran's reforms and an ultraconservative 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.
With 235,251 votes tallied, Rafsanjani was leading Tehran's ultraconservative mayor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by 52.9 percent to 42.7 percent, Interior Ministry spokesman Korosh Mirsaeidi, told The Associated Press.
The number of counted votes represent less than 1 percent of the total vote in last week's first round elections. The heavy turnout forced authorities to extend voting for four hours.
Friday's runoffs - Iran's first for a presidential election - offers sharply differing visions for the future of Iran and its relations with the West. But for many Iranians, the polls came down to a choice over what weighs more heavily on their minds: the fate of reform or Iran's shattered economy.
``The real nuclear bomb that Iran has is its unemployed young people,'' said Ali Pourassad, who voted for hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
``If nothing is done to create jobs for our young people we will have an explosion on the streets,'' Pourassad said as he left a polling station set up in the courtyard of a mosque in the middle-class south of Tehran.
Ahmadinejad, the 47-year-old mayor of Tehran and a former Republican Guard commander, has presented himself as a champion of the poor in a country where unemployment is as high as 30 percent. But he has also vowed a return to the rigid principles of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
That stance has sent liberals and business leaders rushing into the arms of his opponent, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, an insider of Iran's theocracy.
While many reformers have been suspicious of the 70-year-old Rafsanjani in the past, they were more afraid Ahmadinejad will crush the greater social freedoms and openings to the West won over the past decade.
For other voters, Rafsanjani - who was president from 1989-1997 - represented a steady hand to guide Iran.
``It's about experience. Ahmadinejad doesn't have the experience. He should stay as mayor of Tehran, not try to run the country,'' said Parvaneh Mansouri, barely visible beneath her black chador pulled tight around her face in a wholesale food market in Tehran after voting for Rafsanjani.
Ahmadinejad, said to be backed by the hard-line core of Iran's theocracy, broke into Friday's runoff after coming out of nowhere to win the No. 2 spot in the first-round vote a week ago. That stunned Rafsanjani, who had been touted as the favorite but only finished with 20 percent, ahead by a half percentage point margin.
The first-round vote was marred by accusations that Republican Guards and their vigilante allies intimidated voters in favor of Ahmadinejad.
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 into 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.
Ahmadinejad's surprise 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 is only for producing energy.
He has accused Iran's current negotiators of making too many concessions to Europe - particularly in freezing uranium enrichment - and was expected to put Iran's nuclear program into the hands of some avowed anti-Western clerics.
Rafsanjani has appeared more willing to negotiate on the nuclear program. But a Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasized Friday 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.
``I hate these elections. Nothing will change,'' one woman in a voluminous black shawl murmured as she emerged from a polling area, refusing to tell reporters her name or who got her vote.
Ahmadinejad, the son of a blacksmith, has 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.
And he's promising a return to the values of sacrifice seen during the Islamic Revolution.
``Every vote you cast is a bullet in the hearts'' of the United States, said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the powerful 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.
Rafsanjani represents the status quo. Backers feel confident he will continue the many social changes introduced by outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, including youth-supported freedoms such as dating, music and colorful headscarves for women.
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