Rafsanjani (top) and Ahmadinejad

Tehran, June 18 (Reuters): Centrist cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani narrowly clinched top spot today in Iran’s nail-biting presidential election, but now faces a run-off with his closest rival, hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

An interior ministry source said pre-election favourite Rafsanjani had won 20.8 per cent of the 28.85 million votes cast, a turnout of 62 per cent, while Ahmadinejad got 19.3 per cent.

The source, who asked not to be named, said the results did not include ballots cast by Iranians abroad but added that those were not expected to alter the top positions from Friday’s vote. As no one in the seven-strong field secured at least 50 per cent of votes cast, Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad will fight the Islamic republic’s first run-off election on Friday, June 24.

Whoever wins, unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will keep the last word on state affairs and hardliners will retain key levers of power such as security and the courts.

Rafsanjani is a veteran politician who wants better ties with the West and would be likely to pursue a pragmatic reform programme, liberalising the economy and preserving social freedoms without antagonising the powerful clerical elite.

Ahmadinejad, a staunch ally of the hardline establishment, appeared to have won votes among Iran’s pious poor, trading on his credentials as a former instructor with the Basij militia, the zealous enforcers of Islamic revolutionary principles. In a campaign where others broke taboos by advocating better ties with arch-foe America, Ahmadinejad said this was “not the key to all our problems”.

Third-placed reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi accused state bodies of manipulating the vote in favour of a hardline rival.

“Some centres of power are violating the law and are trying to get more votes for a particular person with the help of the Guardian Council,” he said. He did not mention his competitor by name, but the official Irna news agency said he was referring to Ahmadinejad.

The results confirmed the shaky reputation of Iranian opinion polls. Most political pundits were also wrong.

The opinion polls had made Rafsanjani clear favourite, though short of the threshold for a first-round win. But most forecast that reformist Mostafa Moin or hardline ex-police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf would be his closest rivals.