Rafsanjani allies seek unity for Iran run-off

Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad, with about one fifth of the vote each, just pulled clear of their five rivals in a poll damned by Washington as a travesty of the democracy Iranians yearned for.

‘‘I just don’t see the Iranian elections as being a serious attempt to move Iran closer to a democratic future,’’ Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox News television in Jerusalem.

She criticised the legitimacy of the electoral process, in which unelected clerics barred most of the 1,000 Presidential hopefuls, including all the women, from standing.

Those defects prompted some Iranian reformists, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, to boycott the poll.

‘‘As long as they (the clerical establishment) decide for people and tell people whom to vote for by qualifying and disqualifying candidates, I will not vote,’’ she said.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed the 63 per cent turnout as a slap to ‘‘ignorant enemy’’ President George W. Bush. Iranians now face a stark choice on their country’s future in the first run-off election since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Senior Rafsanjani aide urged reformists, secularists and moderate conservatives to unite behind the former President. ‘‘We all can hear the footsteps of fascism,’’ Mohammad Atrianfar said. ‘‘If we create a united front for a national coalition, we will win the Friday election.’’ He echoed accusations from Moin’s camp that Ahmadinejad used Basij religious militiamen to help get out the vote. —Reuters