Imam Khamenei: Ahmadinejad’s Landslide Victory is a Real Feast
Hanan Awarekeh

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13/06/2009

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has won 62.63 percent of the vote across Iran, the
Iranian Interior Minister said on Saturday. In second place was
ex-premier Mir Hossein Mousavi with 33.75 percent vote, minister Sadeq
Mahsouli said.

Iran’s supreme leader Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei praised Ahmadinejad’s
re-election, saying his landslide victory was a "real feast.
"The participation rate of 80 percent and the 24 million votes for the
president-elect is a real feast which can guarantee the country’s
progress, national security and lasting joy," he said in a statement
read on state television. "I congratulate… the people on this
massive success and urge everyone to be grateful for this divine
blessing," the television quoted him as saying.

Election chief Kamran Daneshjoo had earlier said on state television
that Ahmadinejad received almost 21.8 million votes or 63.36 percent
out of nearly 34.4 million valid votes cast in 346 out of 366
electoral districts across the country. He said Ahmadinejad’s closes
rival, the more moderate ex-premier Mir Hossein Mousavi, garnered 11.7
million votes or 34.07 percent.

In a distant third was the former head of the Revolutionary Guards
Mohsen Rezai with almost 588,000 votes or 1.7 percent while reformist
ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi received almost 290,000 votes or
0.87 percent.

Earlier, the Iranian Interior Ministry said that Ahmadinejad was set
for a landslide victory with nearly 80 percent of votes counted in
Iran’s stormy presidential elections. "Doctor Ahmadinejad, by getting
a majority of the votes, has become the definite winner of the 10th
presidential election," state news agency IRNA declared as his
jubilant supporters took to the streets in celebration.

The level of the incumbent’s support, roughly twice as many votes as
Mousavi, Ahmadinejad’s main challenger, with most ballots counted,
confound
ented" voter turnout at the polls Friday was also expected to boost
Mousavi’s chances of winning the presidency.

Mousavi warned on Saturday he would not bow to the "dangerous
scenario" created in Iran after results showed he had lost to
incumbent Ahmadinejad.

Mousavi said he "protested vigorously against the numerous and blatant
irregularities" in Friday’s vote after officials said Ahmadinajad had
secured about 63 percent of the vote with counting in most districts
over. The former premier said on a statement that it was his "national
and religious duty to reveal the secrets of this dangerous process and
to explain its destructive consequences for the future of the
country."

However, as the official results showed Ahmadinejad would be back for
a second term, his supporters poured on to the streets of Tehran,
honking their horns and waving Iranian flags.

In his first term in office Ahmadinejad became known to the outside
world for his fierce rhetoric against the United States and
Israel. But Friday’s election was also seen as a referendum on his
handling of an oil exporting economy which enjoyed a surge in
petrodollar revenues on his watch – a boom which critics say he
squandered.

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.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress