[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

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Jun 21, 5:39 PM EDT

Bitter Iran Leadership Dispute Intensifies
http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_ELECTIONS?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=US
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer




TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- The bitter third-placed finisher in Iran's presidential race called on voters Tuesday to flock to polling stations this weekend to defeat an Islamic hard-line candidate he termed a "symbol of totalitarianism."

The former parliament speaker, Mahdi Karroubi, also intensified his claims of election fraud, claiming that the supervisory Guardian Council had overlooked alleged cases of multiple voting and other violations by hard-liners.

Speaking at a news conference, Karroubi appealed for a strong turnout in the runoff election to defeat Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and "save the nation ... from this symbol of totalitarianism."

He said the alternative was "Talibanization" - a reference to the puritanical Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, who were ousted by the U.S.-led coalition after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He called the polls "the darkest pages" of Iran's ideological struggle since the election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami in 1997.

The campaign has been rancorous at times. In a bid to lower the rhetoric, the hard-line judiciary issued an order Tuesday that prohibited voters from sending mobile phone text messages that criticize either candidate in Friday's runoff. It was not clear how the judiciary intends to enforce the ban.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Karroubi said he planned to start his own political party to compete in the presidential elections of 2009.

Earlier this week, Karroubi attacked the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for condoning the use of "coup-like" methods by clerics to fix the elections. The leader upbraided him for going public with accusations of vote-rigging. On Tuesday, he told The AP that at least two members of the Guardian Council should be investigated for election rigging.

Karroubi claims that Revolutionary Guards and other conservatives intimidated voters and manipulated the results to give Ahmadinejad a razor-thin advantage for the No. 2 slot, enabling him to reach the nation's first runoff poll for the presidency.

On Friday, Ahmadinejad will face Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatic cleric who served as president from 1989-97.

Karroubi - once Rafsanjani's opponent in the presidential race - has emerged as his most outspoken ally.

At a rally at Tehran University, Rafsanjani refused to make a frontal attack on Ahmadinejad, referring to him only indirectly. Some students whistled and booed in displays of disappointment.

"Those who try to use extremism as a solution are opponents of the Quran," Rafsanjani said. "Moderation should be applied to all issues. In the international scene we should use negotiations, prudence and logic."

Farid Rezai, 25, student of medicine, was not impressed.

"We need freedom, we need jobs, but he had no answers in these regards," he said
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