Protest rallies in Tehran against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
13.06.2009 19:08 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad triggered mass
opposition protests and furious complaints of cheating from his
defeated rivals, AFP reports.
Riot police clashed with protestors in unrest not seen for a decade as
thousands of supporters of main challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi took to
the streets shouting "Down with the Dictator" after final results
showed Ahmadinejad winning almost 63 percent of the vote.
Moderate ex-premier Mousavi cried foul over election irregularities
and warned the vote could lead to "tyranny," as some of his supporters
were beaten by baton-wielding police.
The interior minister said Mousavi had won less than 34 percent of the
vote, giving Ahmadinejad another four-year term in a result that
dashed Western hopes of change and set the scene for a possible
domestic power struggle.
Iran’s all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed
Ahmadinejad’s victory and urged the country to unite behind him after
the most heated election campaign since the Islamic revolution,
The vote outcome appears to have galvanised a grass-roots movement for
change after 30 years of restrictive clerical rule in a country where
60 percent of the population was born after the revolution.
The international community had also 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.
Mousavi protested at what he described as "numerous and blatant
irregularities" in the vote which officials said attracted a record
turnout of around 85 percent of the 46 million electorate.
In the heart of Tehran, thousands of angry Mousavi supporters voiced
their disbelief and frustration at the results, with some pelting
stones at police who struck back with batons.
Reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi, who came a distant fourth with
less than one percent of the vote after ex-Revolutionary Guards chief
Mohsen Rezai in third, also declared the result "illegitimate and
unacceptable".
Ahmadinejad’s supporters had earlier taken to the streets in triumph,
honking their horns and waving Iranian flags.
The election highlighted deep divisions in Iran after four years under
Ahmadinejad, who had massive support in the rural heartland, while in
the big cities young men and women threw their weight behind Mousavi.