Iran faced turmoil last night as the hardline President and his centrist challenger both claimed victory in a bitterly contested election.
The offical news agency reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won, and the state elections chief said that the President had 69 per cent of the vote with 35 per cent of the ballots counted. However, the main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, insisted that he was the "definite winner" by a substantial margin, and an aide suggested that he had taken 65 per cent.
The official result will be announced today, but the huge turnout ─ close to the historic record of 80 per cent ─ appeared to favour Mr Mousavi’s claim. Urban, middle-class Iranians, who seldom bother to vote, did so yesterday because they thought Mr Ahmadinejad’s first four years in office a disaster.
It was widely alleged, but never proved, that vote-rigging secured Mr Ahmadinejad’s unlikely victory in 2005. He entered that election an unknown, but was backed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader.
If Mr Ahmadinejad is declared the victor, there is a danger of violence in Tehran and other cities. On Thursday Mohammad Atrianfar, a Mousavi adviser, said that the President could win only by cheating, and predicted riots and chaos if that happened. Saeed Laylaz, a respected political consultant, said that he feared a "Tiananmen Square-style experience", with the military crushing protests.
Scuffles broke out in central Tehran last night between Mr Mousavi’s supporters and police. Several websites, including the BBC, appeared to have been blocked.
Earlier yesterday the Interior Ministry banned all rallies until the result is announced, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appealed for calm. "Passion and motivation is high among people," he said. "If some intend to create tension, this will harm the people."
Voting was extended well into the evening after tens of millions of people queued for hours in the baking sun outside the schools and mosques that served as polling stations.
President Obama expressed hope for a fresh start for the West’s relations with Iran. "We think there’s the possibility of change," Mr Obama said. "You’re seeing people looking at new possibilities. 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."
Centrist voters in northern Tehran turned out in almost unprecedented numbers to support Mr Mousavi. In the wealthy district of Shahrak Gharb, about a hundred voters in stylish clothes and sunglasses had arrived outside the polling station before it opened. "I’ve never seen so many people here so early. There are usually no more than ten or fifteen," Mehran Lotfi, the presiding officer, said.
A few miles away, at the Hosseineh Ershad mosque, voters queued for more than two hours to cast their ballots, and appeared overwhelmingly to support Mr Mousavi. "I didn’t want to vote because I don’t believe in the regime, but I want to get rid of Ahmadinejad," said Sahand Tehrani, 19, a film stuntman.
In a kebab house near the centre of the city all but one of the half-dozen customers backed Mr Mousavi. "We don’t want to look like terrorists. We want to be respected in the international community," said Armin Abishi, 26, a transport company manager, the blue dye on his index finger showing that he had voted.
There were allegations of dirty tricks. Mr Mousavi said that some of his monitors had been denied access to polling stations, that the text messaging system that his campaign has used to mobilise the youth vote was shut down, and that in some of his strongholds the polling stations ran out of ballot papers.
"I expect cheating," said Masoud Asadi, a veteran Iranian journalist, who claimed that the Government had printed many more ballot papers than there were voters.
"One thousand per cent, I believe Mousavi will be elected. About 20 of us have promised among ourselves to go on the streets if he’s not," Mohammed Ghadami, 21, a student, said.
However, in poorer areas, where women were mostly clad in long black chadors and very few spoke English, Mr Ahmadinejad enjoyed strong support. On one street corner, Shapour Rasolzadeh, 39, a motorbike courier, offered to cut his wrist and soak an Iranian flag with his blood to prove his love of the President. "He’s made Iran great again. All the world has witnessed what he’s done for Iran," he said.
In a mosque in the Shoosh district of south Tehran, a group of men said that they were solidly behind Mr Ahmadinejad. "I’m voting for someone who comes from the people," Bahram Salehi, a taxi driver, said.
Just south of Tehran, at the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the republic, The Times found scarcely a single Mousavi supporter among the hundreds of pilgrims. "Whoever wants to become president should support poor people and improve their life, and Ahmadinejad has done that 100 per cent," Ebrahim Jhadem, 21, said.
Some voters who had supported Mr Ahmadinejad in 2005 had switched to his opponent. Their most common complaint was rampant inflation.
"I’ve switched to Mousavi because I think he’ll improve the economy. Under Ahmadinajad the inflation rate has shot up," said Abolfazl Zamani, a bazaari, in the mosque in Shoosh.
"He claimed he wanted to help poor people, but he’s done just the opposite," said Marjan Davari, a young mother.
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