President Mohammad Khatami has crushed his opponents in Iran's presidential elections, winning an unexpectedly decisive mandate to forge ahead with his controversial democratic reforms.
The 57-year-old, accused by conservatives of undermining the Islamic regime by allowing unprecedented freedoms, showed the people were clearly on his side after romping to a second term with nearly 80 percent of the popular vote.
With 10 out of 28 provinces counted nationwide by early Saturday morning, Khatami had already secured another four years in an office he once said he didn't want to hold again in the face of harsh conservative opposition.
His nearest of nine challengers, conservative former labor minister Ahmad Tavakoli, managed just 14.3 percent, while voters gave the popular mid-ranking cleric an untouchable 79.88 percent, the interior ministry said.
Eight other candidates divided the rest of the votes in an election seen as conceded by conservatives before it began.
But the landslide was just what Khatami and his allies for a freer and more democratic Iran had been seeking, after an initial term marked by a brutal struggle over the future of the Islamic republic.
Conservatives who will still wield most of the levers of power hampered his ambitious reform agenda, and there was fear in his camp that he would not get the decisive win in Friday's vote needed to push ahead with reforms.
His conservative rivals had already struck a blow late Friday, calling into question Khatami's mandate when they alleged there had been widespread irregularities at the polls.
"There were numerous irregularities which went against the interests of the people," a spokesman for the conservative-led Guardians Council told state television. "There was notably the loss of many voting slips."
The claim was quickly denied by the interior ministry, which supervises Iran's elections and is headed by a Khatami ally, setting up the potential first showdown with conservatives in his second term.
The bickering especially marked the last two years of his term, as conservatives, who have been roundly beaten by reformists at every major election since 1997, moved to slow down Khatami's changes.
But throughout the campaign, the mid-ranking cleric vowed that greater freedom was compatible with an Islamic regime, and the only way forward in a nation where two-thirds of the population are under 35.
"After the count, all forces in our society must cooperate with the historic aspirations of the Iranian people," the president said as he cast his own vote Friday, once again urging his opponents to ease their campaign against him.
"Iranians, wherever they are, are citizens of our country, and the government is accountable to them," he said. "We must create an environment in which everyone feels respected."
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who at times has personally intervened to stymie the president's agenda and at other times displayed his unity with Khatami, appealed Friday for an end to the partisan battling.
"Today the rivalry ends," he said, seeking to cool the passions surrounding Khatami's reforms, increasingly attacked by conservatives as the first step on the road to ruin for the 22-year-old Islamic clerical regime.
"Every vote is a vote in support of the regime and the constitution," he said.
Analysts had discussed a potential coalition arrangement in any second Khatami term, but the gaping margin of victory -- backed by what the interior ministry said was around 83 percent voter turnout -- will surely end such talk.
Parliament speaker Mehdi Karubi, a close ally, said Friday a landslide win would have "positive consequences for our economy, our culture and our foreign policy."
More than 42 million people were eligible to vote Friday, including some 6 million first-time voters over the age of 15 – TEHRAN (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
