well.....looks like the stage is set for a confrontation.
will we invade? will the Iraqi Shia rise up. who knows. We live in interesting times
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Hardline Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad swept toward a stunning presidential election victory over veteran cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Saturday with the backing of
Iran's religious poor, officials said.
Political analysts say a win for Ahmadinejad, 48, could spell an end to fragile social reforms made under outgoing President
Mohammad Khatami and harden Iran's foreign policy toward the West, particularly over its nuclear program.
An official at the Islamic Republic's Guardian Council, which must approve the election results, said that with 13.3 million votes counted, Ahmadinejad had secured 61.6 percent.
The official said turnout was 22 million, or 47 percent, well down on the 63 percent of Iran's 46.7 million eligible voters who cast ballots in the first round on June 17.
Friday's vote exposed deep class divisions in the oil-producing nation of 67 million people.
"Ahmadinejad is well ahead and it seems he is the winner," said an Interior Ministry official, who declined to be named. "Poor provinces have voted massively for Ahmadinejad."
Ahmadinejad's humble lifestyle and pledges to tackle corruption and redistribute the country's oil wealth have appealed to the urban and rural religious poor, analysts say.
Pro-reform political parties, students, clerics and academics had backed Rafsanjani, accusing Ahmadinejad of representing an authoritarian trend in Iranian politics.
Yahoo