Ahmadinejad Wins Landslide Victory in Iran
Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been declared the winner of Iran's presidential election, prompting street protests by the opposition.
Iran's interior minister, Sadeq Mahsouli, announced Saturday that President Ahmadinejad won 62.6 percent of the vote, beating out his top reformist rival Mir Hossein Mousavi, who received 33.75 percent of the vote.
Following preliminary results, Mr. Mousavi, a former prime minister, denounced what he called many violations in Friday's vote, and vowed not to surrender to the "charade."
His supporters, angry with the results, protested in the streets of Tehran and briefly clashed with police, who used batons to disperse the crowds.
The results have also surprised many analysts who predicted a tight race between the incumbent president and Mr. Mousavi.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, welcomed the results. He said the high voter turnout - at more than 80 percent - and the 24 million votes cast for Mr. Ahmadinejad are a "real celebration."
While media restrictions have prevented coverage of some of the street protests in Tehran, videos of the demonstrations have been pouring in over social media networks.
Videos received by employees of VOA's Persian News Network on their personal accounts on the social networking site Facebook show thousands of opposition supporters marching in the streets of Tehran.
Other videos, purportedly recorded by citizens and posted on Facebook and YouTube, show angry crowds throwing stones at police on a busy Tehran street.
Mr. Ahmadinejad's rivals have accused him of badly mismanaging the economy and tarnishing Iran's image, further isolating the country from the West. The Iranian president has denied the Holocaust and called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Saturday, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said the election results depicting Mr. Ahmadinejad's victory demonstrate that the "Iranian threat" has grown. Ayalon also said the international community must stop the nuclear program and terrorism coming from Iran.
VOA News
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