The Hindu : International : Reformists alarmed by hardliner's success

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Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

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International

Reformists alarmed by hardliner's success

Atul Aneja

Bolstered by support from the poor, Ahmadinejad's camp begins to fancy victory

TEHERAN: Fear and uncertainty has gripped pro-reform circles in Iran ahead of Friday's run-off election where the ultra-hardline Presidential candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad poses a serious challenge to centrist cleric Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

With only three days to go for the second round of polls, hardliners and their opponents are feuding bitterly in public, in a bid to swing votes in their favour. Charged by Mehdi Karroubi, a Presidential hopeful who was edged out of the second position in the first round of elections by Mr. Ahmedinejad with a wafer thin margin, that a hardline clique had manipulated the vote, the unelected Guardian Coucil has hit back strongly.

Vote-rigging denied

The council, which has three members appointed by the head of the judiciary, and three clerics by Iran's Supreme Leader, said that there was no evidence of rigging.

After recounting 100 ballot boxes, the Guardian Council in a statement read out over state television said: "It has been clarified that there was no discrepancy in the election results." The second round of elections would be held as planned on June 24, it said.

Mr. Karroubi had alleged that sections of the Iranian military and the pro-establishment Basij militia had tampered with the vote. The former Speaker of Parliament who was also adviser to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, resigned from all posts and declared his intent to form a new Opposition party.

Mr. Rafsanjani also went public in support of Mr. Karroubi. The officials should "pay heed to the complaint raised by my brother, Mehdi Karroubi, about the results in certain provinces", he said in a statement. Stung by the accusation that it was involved in vote-rigging, the Revolutionary Guards — the elite frontline troops — responded sternly to Mr. Karroubi's charges. "The gentleman should watch out not to embitter the people", Masood Jazayeri, spokesman of the Revolutionary Guards said.

As the countdown for the elections begins, Mr. Ahmadinejad's supporters have begun to fancy their chances.

The conservative Abadagaran group, which already controls Parliament, is fully behind the former mayor of Teheran. Mr. Ahmadinejad has found considerable support in the poor areas of south and east Teheran.

Aware of the anxiety that his success has caused, Mr. Ahmadinejad has begun to soften his image of a hardliner.

In a meeting with economists he declared his support for private enterprise and foreign investment.

Mr. Ahmadinejad has visited the Teheran University campus — a pro-reform bastion — to woo students for support.

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