Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hard-line mayor of Tehran, scored a huge political upset Friday to win the presidency of Iran. Many reformers in Iran fear that Ahmadinejad may try to take the nation back to the initial restrictions that were enacted after the Islamic revolution of 1979.
According to statistics released by the Interior Ministry, Ahmadinejad received 61.8 percent of the vote while his opponent in Friday's runoff election, the more moderate Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani received only 35.7 percent. Voter turnout was an impressive 63 percent.
Conservative politicians now control both the presidency and the parliament which means that the mullahs who run the religious portion of the government will have less opposition and an easier time passing their agenda.
Ahmadinejad, 47, ran as a poor man's candidate. With unemployment approaching 30 percent in Iran, the strategy worked as the majority of the people were able to relate to the former Tehran mayor rather than Rafsanjani who is wealthy and an established member of Iran's elite.
Ahmadinejad promised higher wages, more health insurance for workers, increased development in rural areas and social benefits for women. However, he also promised a return to the strict religious policies of 25 years ago.
According to a story published by the Associated Press, one of Ahmadinejad's major supporters, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, told his followers at Friday prayers, 'Every vote you cast is a bullet in the hearts' of the United States. What they (Western countries) have is not democracy, but rule of trickery. It's parties and capitalists who get the vote of the people in their own favor to fill their pockets.'
The results of the election come as a major disappointment for the West and those who were hoping for reformers to take control in Iran.
