Arrests made ahead of tight Iran presidential poll

Paul Hughes, Reuters:

Iran said on Thursday it had arrested 26 people, including at least one military figure, for suspected electoral violations ahead of an unpredictable presidential run-off vote. READ MORE

The arrests appeared to lend some credence to reformist charges that an inconclusive first round vote on June 17 was marred by dirty tricks.

The reformists question a late surge in support which took hardline Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into Friday's run-off.

Ahmadinejad, 48, a former Revolutionary Guardsman who draws his support from Iran's pious poor, faces veteran cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a vote that has split the Islamic state broadly along class lines.

Supporters of Rafsanjani, 70, who is bidding to regain the post he held from 1989 to 1997, say a win for Ahmadinejad would roll back outgoing President Mohammad Khatami's modest reforms and could lead Iran into international isolation.

Seeking to cut into Ahmadinejad's hardcore support among the poor, Rafsanjani pledged late Wednesday to introduce unemployment benefit of up to 1.5 million rials ($165) a month.

He also endorsed a multi-billion dollar plan to expand share ownership by giving each Iranian family about $11,000 of stock options in privatized state firms.

It was not clear whether the last-ditch pledge on a late-night television show would sway many voters.

Citing an Interior Ministry statement, the official IRNA news agency said 104 cases of electoral violations had been recorded in the first round of elections, leading to 26 arrests.

Forty-four cases involved military personnel and one "prominent military figure" was arrested for "delivering speeches against a candidate and destroying the image of the Islamic system," IRNA said.

ACRIMONIOUS CAMPAIGN

Defeated reformist candidates, now backing Rafsanjani, have accused the hardline Revolutionary Guards and Basij militia of supporting Ahmadinejad. Electoral laws bar members of the military from campaigning for any particular candidate.

Ahmadinejad says the allegations are further smears in what has become an acrimonious campaign.

A Shi'ite cleric and key founder of the Islamic state, Rafsanjani now casts himself as a liberal. He has vowed to increase social and political freedoms, liberalize the economy and seek better ties with the West.

His support base lies mostly among the upper and middle classes and senior bureaucrats terrified of the sweeping changes Ahmadinejad may bring to OPEC's No. 2 oil producer. "Mr. Rafsanjani has the power, expertise and experience to make this plan come true and has accepted its risk," Tehran bourse chief Hossein Abdoh-Tabrizi said at a news conference on Thursday to detail Rafsanjani's share ownership proposal.

Ahmadinejad's supporters, in contrast, come mostly from the working class, rural poor and unemployed who admire his humility and pledges to redistribute the country's vast oil income.

Opinion polls, unreliable in the past, show the two men neck-and-neck. Analysts say the vote is too close to call.

Campaigning ended at 9 a.m. (0430 GMT) on Thursday, 24 hours before polls open. The minimum voting age is 15 and 47 million people are eligible to vote. Results are expected on Saturday.

Ahmadinejad on Wednesday dismissed rumors that he would impose gender segregation in public and force women to wear the head-to-toe chador.

"The country's true problems are unemployment and housing, not what to wear," he told state television.