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| Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conservative, has
won a landslide victory in Friday's Iranian 9th presidential
election. (Photo: Xinhua/AFP) |
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
has banned supporters of either candidate from holding street
victory celebrations, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"It was heard that the headquarters of
both candidates are preparing for celebrations and announcement
of their victory," Khamenei said in a statement, adding
they are strongly instructed that a premature announcement
of victory "should be seriously objected to and prevented."
Iran's state media all kept silent on Saturday
morning about the latest results, including the state television
and radio, which often present the quickest report on issues
concerning the country's official announcements.
Ahmadinejad will be Iran's first non-cleric
president in 24 years when he takes office in August.
He has been viewed as a representative
of the ultra-conservatives of the country and a disciple of
Khamenei.
Ahmadinejad was born into a blacksmith family
in 1956 in the southeastern countryside of Tehran. He was
finally admitted to PhDin transportation engineering in 1997
in Tehran Industry Technology University.
He was elected Tehran mayor in 2003, and got
reputation from the merits of improving the traffic condition
and stabilizing prices in the sprawling and polluted capital.
Due to his family background, Ahmadinejad always
leads a simple life. It is said that he often takes home-made
lunch to office and lives in an ordinary flat. As a result,
Ahmadinejad is also enthusiastically supported by people of
lower social status in the country.
He has said he is against any compromise
on the issue of Iran's nuclear program and relations with
the United States. Domestically, the Tehran mayor has been
making all efforts to restore the fundamentalist Islamic law
in the country, which has made him very unpopular among less
religious people. Enditem
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