Iran will have its first runoff presidential election in its history, officials said yesterday, after front-runner Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani failed to win enough votes for outright victory. The main pro-reform candidate struggled for a second-place spot, trailing hard-liners.
With about three-quarters of the votes counted from Friday's presidential contest, Rafsanjani strengthened his hold on the top spot with 21.5 percent after a strong voter turnout that defied a boycott drive by dissidents.
Friday's voting showed a large turnout in a resounding rejection of a youth-led boycott -- with lines of voters forcing polling to continue four hours overtime. Iran's hard-line leaders crowed that US President George W. Bush helped fuel the turnout by sharply criticizing the elections as undemocratic and angering many Iranians. A day before the election, Bush sharply denounced the vote, saying it was designed to keep power in the hands of the clerics. But some Iranians said they were motivated to vote to retaliate against Bush's denunciations.
``I picked Ahmadinejad to slap America in the face,'' said Mahdi Mirmalek after attending Friday prayers at Tehran University.
The race for No. 2 -- and a place in the two-man second round election next week -- was up for grabs. Conservatives were making a strong showing. Mahdi Karroubi, the former parliament speaker, held the second spot with 20.2 percent. Karroubi is a close a close ally of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who heads the non-elected theocracy. Karroubi was trailed by Tehran's conservative mayor, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, with 17.2 percent.
The top pro-reform candidate, Mostafa Moin, had fallen to fifth place with 14.3 percent, behind Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a former head of the national police, with 15.2 percent.
The final outcome -- expected yesterday -- could significantly reshuffle the race for runner-up. City voters favored Rafsanjani and Moin, a former culture minister. A run-off is needed in Iran's tightest presidential election since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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