TEHRAN — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad holds a decisive lead in his reelection bid, Iran's Interior Ministry said this morning, while his main rival claimed victory and alleged election irregularities.
Ministry officials said that with more than 75% of ballots counted, the incumbent had received nearly two-thirds of the vote. More than 46 million people were eligible to vote, officials said.
Official results are expected today, but news outlets loyal to the president claimed that he had scored a decisive victory over moderate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who had received about a third of the votes counted. This morning, security forces shut down Mousavi's offices, his campaign said.
The election is expected to have broad domestic and international repercussions, as the Islamic Republic and the West remain at odds over Tehran's nuclear program and support for militant groups that oppose Israel. The results were being closely watched by officials in capitals around the world.
President Obama said the "robust debate" during the campaign suggests change may come to Iran.
"You're seeing people looking at new possibilities," Obama said. "And whoever ends up winning the election in Iran, the fact that there's been a robust debate hopefully will help advance our ability to engage them in new ways."
Ahmadinejad had not made any public statements about the initial election results by early today.
However, Mousavi said at a news conference late Friday in north Tehran that he had won the majority of votes but the election was marred by irregularities that tilted the table in favor of Ahmadinejad. Mousavi also questioned the impartiality of the Interior Ministry, which oversees the counting.
"We have definitely won this election," he said, and called on Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to ensure a fair vote and address alleged abuses.
An insider in the Mousavi campaign angrily complained afterward that a still-unexplained decision to shut down the nation's cellphone networks' text messaging service just before the vote had cut off their ability to systematically monitor the ballot boxes for irregularities.
The normally soft-spoken Mousavi suggested that he would not accept the results of an election he considered flawed. He said there were ballot shortages at polling stations in districts that leaned toward his camp, and that sites were closed early. Thousands of his campaign workers were barred from monitoring polling stations, he said. He also mentioned attacks on his campaign offices.
