Iranian election: reformist Hassan Rowhani takes an early lead with a fifth of ... - Telegraph.co.uk

If no candidate gets an overall majority of 50 per cent plus one vote in the first round, the top two candidates will square off in a second-round run-off scheduled for June 21. Mr Rowhani, 64, led talks with world powers over Iran's controversial nuclear ambitions under Mr Khatami's presidency. During his tenure, in 2003, the Islamic republic agreed to suspend uranium enrichment. It was restarted after Mr Ahmadinejad first became president in 2005. Iran has been at loggerheads with world powers over its nuclear ambitions, which the West suspects is aimed at developing atomic weapons. The stand-off has resulted in the imposition of harsh economic sanctions and Tehran's international isolation. While campaigning, Mr Rowhani promised to move to ease those sanctions, which have led to severe economic pain in the country. Inflation is at more than 30 per cent, while the Iranian currency, the rial, has lost nearly 70 per cent of its value and unemployment is rising. Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the Guardians Council electoral watchdog, said late on Friday that "no violation" had been reported whatsoever across Iran. Mr Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009 sparked massive anti-regime street protests after his opponents and two reformist candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi alleged wide-scale voting fraud. Those protests, stifled by a brutal regime crackdown, led to the eventual detention under house arrest of Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi, and a widespread suppression of reformists. Mr Rowhani's surge in the campaign came after Mr Khatami publicly endorsed him, asking all his supporters to vote for the moderate candidate. Edited for Telegraph.co.uk by Harriet Alexander via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGiY3gD51Vp9asxWWoShZfbDqyy8w&url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/10122263/Iranian-election-reformist-Hassan-Rowhani-takes-an-early-lead-with-a-fifth-of-votes-counted.html

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 2953939