Ahmadinejad wins Iranian presidential election

MOSCOW, June 13 (RIA Novosti) – Iran’s hardline incumbent President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won Friday’s election, leaving his rival,
reformist former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, far behind.
With over 38 million votes counted, preliminary results showed
Ahmadinejad gained almost 64% of the vote, and Mousavi nearly 33%.
Thhe Islamic Republic’s election commission kept polls open for an
additional two hours on Friday as the voter turnout exceeded 80%.
Expectations that there would be a runoff fell flat, and Western
leaders who counted on Mousavi’s victory will now have to keep dealing
with the reelected president.
The West accuses Iran of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program,
but Tehran says it need nuclear power solely for civilian purposes.
Almost 500 candidates registered to run in the election, but only four
were allowed onto the ballot, the other two being Mehdi Karroubi and
Mohsen Rezaei, who received few votes.