TEHRAN, 15 June 2005 — The frontrunner in the turbulent race for Iran’s presidency, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, won high profile support yesterday from the oil and nuclear sectors but the election still appeared set to go into a second round. The run-up to Friday’s vote, which will herald an end to the difficult reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami, also saw more bomb attacks — with new blasts reported to have shaken the southeastern city of Zahedan.
As candidates intensified their campaigns, Khatami advised voters to be skeptical of promises of more freedoms — a clear snipe at the campaigns of religious hardliners busy reinventing themselves as slick moderates. “Today all the candidates are talking about freedom, democracy, fighting censorship, the rights of the youth and women’s rights,” said Khatami, who is himself barred by the constitution from standing, having served two consecutive four-year terms.
“The important thing is to consider their records to see how committed they have been, and what practical plans they have to follow through with their promises.” Informal opinion polls in the Iranian press are signaling that none of the eight candidates will be able to secure the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to win on June 17. In that case, the top two would face a run-off, which would be held on July 1.
Seen as trailing Rafsanjani in the No. 2 position is either former police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a uniformed hard-liner-turned smiling casual technocrat, and leftist-reformist Mostafa Moin. The other in the race are hard-liners Mohsen Rezai, Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmedi Nejad and former state television boss Ali Larijani, and reformists Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh and Mehdi Karoubi.
But Rafsanjani, who has already served as president and who is presenting himself as a moderate with the clout to get things done, received a fresh boost yesterday. The head of Iran’s nuclear energy agency, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, said the cleric was “the only person capable of solving” Iran’s nuclear standoff with the international community.
Several people were lightly wounded in three blast in the southeastern city of Zahedan, the official IRNA news agency said. It said that the weak explosions took place on Monday evening and early yesterday morning. Up to 10 people were killed in separate, larger attacks in the ethnic Arab-dominated city of Ahvaz and the capital Tehran on Sunday.
Judicial spokesman Jamal Karimi Rad told AFP that six suspects had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Ahvaz attacks and one over the Tehran blasts. Officials have pointed the finger at the Iraq-based People’s Mujahedeen, which is Iran’s main armed opposition group, and Arab separatists linked to Baathist supporters of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
