Reformists hope Iran vote will unseat Ahmadinejad

Countdown to Iran vote
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By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's presidential candidates ended a hard-fought and bitter campaign on Thursday, the eve of an election which reformists hope will prevent hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning a second term.
The campaign has seen unprecedented political mudslinging and large rallies in Tehran by supporters of moderate former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi, who a senior Revolutionary Guard officer accused of attempting a "velvet revolution."
Friday's highly charged election could set the tone for Iran's relations with the West, concerned over its nuclear ambitions, and analysts say a victory for Mousavi could increase the prospect for Western investment in the Islamic Republic.
But for Iranians it is a chance to judge Ahmadinejad's economic record and his austere Islamist social agenda.
"I think it's a neck-and-neck race (between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi)," said one Tehran analyst who asked not to be named. "It's difficult to think either of the two candidates will get above 50 percent tomorrow."
If none of the four candidates wins an outright majority on Friday the two leading candidates will go into a June 19 run-off, which the analyst said Mousavi had a good chance of winning.
But others predict a victory for the incumbent, based on his popularity among the rural poor. "Ahmadinejad has a lot of support throughout the country," said Hamid Najafi, editor-in-chief of the conservative Kayhan International.
Mousavi supporters, wearing his bright green campaign colors, have poured onto the capital's streets for festive, nightly rallies unseen since the election 12 years ago of reformist cleric Mohammad Khatami.
Ahmadinejad supporters have held huge demonstrations of their own, expressing support for a leader who has handed petrodollars to the poor and defied Western pressure to suspend Iran's nuclear program.
The vibrant and largely good-natured rallies have contrasted with bitter political exchanges.
Ahmadinejad's opponents accused him of lying about Iran's economy, hit by rising prices and unemployment, while Ahmadinejad has enraged the powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani -- a Mousavi supporter -- by accusing him of corruption.
Rafsanjani wrote a public letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging him to rein in Ahmadinejad, and met Khamenei on Tuesday to express fears the election will be rigged, a leading moderate politician told Reuters.
"Rafsanjani urged the leader to use his authority to make sure the election was a clean and healthy one," he said.
STREET DANCING
Mousavi, 67, an architect who has been out of the political spotlight for two decades, is backed by reformists and conservatives disenchanted with Ahmadinejad. Continued...
Source: Reuters