Incumbent Ahmadinejad wins Iran's presidential vote, Mousavi cries foul

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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REACTIONS - Ahmadinejad wins lanslide in Iran poll

The scale of Ahmadinejad's victory -- he took nearly twice as many votes as former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi with counting almost complete after Friday's poll -- upset widespread expectations that the race would at least go to a second round.

Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli said Ahmadinejad won 62.6 percent of the vote and Mousavi 33.75 percent. He said 39.1 million votes were cast, representing a record turnout of 85 percent across the country.

Ahmadinejad garnered a massive 24.5 million votes against 13.2 million for Mousavi.

The former head of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai came third with 678,240 votes or 1.73 percent, while reformist ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi was last with 333,635 votes or 0.85 percent.

Mousavi protested against what he said were many obvious violations.

"I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade. The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny," Mousavi said in a statement made available to Reuters.

The international community has been keenly watching the election for any signs of a shift in policy after four years of hardline rhetoric from the 52-year-old Ahmadinejad and a standoff over Iran’s nuclear drive.

SUPPORTERS CLASH IN TEHRAN

Hundreds of supporters of Ahmadinejad and Mousavi clashed in Tehran after a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad in a presidential election, a Reuters witness said.

Police using batons moved to disperse the demonstrators who were staging a sit-in to protest against Ahmadinejad's victory. They were chasing and arresting some of the protestors.

The witness saw two men being carried away from the scene at Vanak square in the Iranian capital. Some people were having fistfights.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told all Iranians to respect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in the election.

Khamenei, Iran's top authority, told defeated candidates and their supporters to avoid "provocative behaviour".

"The chosen and respected president is the president of all the Iranian nation and everyone, including yesterday's competitors, must unanimously support and help him," Reuters quoted Khamenei as saying in a statement read on state television.

The election underscored deep divisions in Iran after four years under Ahmadinejad, who could count on massive support in the rural heartland, while in the big cities young men and women threw their weight behind Mousavi.

Iran has long been at loggerheads with the West as Ahmadinejad delivered a succession of fiery tirades against Israel, repeatedly questioned the Holocaust and vowed to press on with nuclear work despite UN sanctions, denying allegations Tehran was seeking the atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad, portraying himself as a man of the people, pledged to stamp out corruption and help the poor -- while his rivals accused him of mismanaging the economy of one of the worlds top oil producers and damaging the nations international standing.

"POSSIBILITY OF CHANGE"

US President Barack Obama, who has called for dialogue with Iran after three decades of severed ties, said he saw the "possibility of change" in relations with the regional Shiite powerhouse.

"Whoever ends up winning the election in Iran, the fact that there’s been a robust debate hopefully will help advance our ability to engage them in new ways," Obama said.

Even if Mousavi had won, it was doubtful there would be any major shift in Iran’s nuclear and foreign policy as all decisions on matters of state rest with all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the United States, home to the largest Iranian expatriate population, regime opponents condemned the election as a "sham."

The vote has nevertheless highlighted a call for change after 30 years of restrictive clerical rule in a country where 60 percent of the population was born after the revolution.

The economy was also a key issue, with Iran battling rampant inflation, rising unemployment and plunging income from crude oil exports.