The shaky favorite in Friday’s second-round vote, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani won the key support of two major reform parties—a boost after he just barely squeaked into first place in last week’s first round of voting. In the camp of his rival, hardline Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, optimism was high, with campaigners predicting a win at the upcoming polls. The run-off race is too tight to call. In a statement carried on his campaign website, Rafsanjani accused “reactionaries” in the government of misusing public money to mount a slander campaign against him. He expressed concern about “organised intervention” in last Friday’s Presidential elections when he took a dismal 21 per cent of the vote, just two percentage points ahead of Ahmadinejad, who was the dark horse.The largest pro-reformist party, the Executive of Construction Party, led by the brother of outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, announced its support for Rafsanjani, as did an influential moderate party, the Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organisation. —AP/PTI
