Iran Votes in Presidential Election

Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is considered to be a leading candidate to succeed Mohammad Khatami in what is expected to be the closest presidential election in the country's history. Opinion polls show Rafsanjani went into today's vote with a very narrow lead and analysts are increasingly speculating the contest will go to a run-off next week.

Top reformist candidate Mostafa Moin and hard-liner Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf are second and third in the polls.

Rafsanjani, who was president of Iran from 1989-1997, says he wants better ties with the West and less tension over Iran's nuclear program. In an interview with CNN Tuesday, he said, "I think the time is right to open a new chapter with the United States."

Rafsanjani said Washington should gain Iran's trust by unblocking billions of dollar of frozen assets.

The U.S. broke off diplomatic ties with Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and President George W. Bush labelled the country as part of the "Axis of Evil" in 2002. Despite the close race and competitive campaigns, Bush pre-emptively dismissed the elections. Bush said yesterday that in Iran, "Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy."

Today's election poll follows an unprecedented protest by hundreds of women outside Tehran University Sunday calling for greater rights and a boycott of the election. That same day, a series of bombings across two cities left at least 10 people dead and injured dozens more. The Iranian government blamed two opposition groups as well as the United States and Britain for the bombings.

* Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy in San Francisco. He was in Tehran, Iran ahead of Friday's presidential elections. His latest book is "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death."

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